Shopian clash: J&K govt to remove CRPF in Gagren Camp

The Jammu & Kashmir government has ordered the removal of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) from Gagren Camp, where five people were shot dead since Saturday, and it will be replaced with the Jammu and Kashmir Armed Police (JKAP), a government official said on Thursday. The state cabinet, which met in Srinagar today under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, expressed grave concern over the recent incidents of violence in South Kashmir’s Shopian district. [caption id=“attachment_1105231” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A military personnel stands guard in Shopian on Thursday. Shahid Tantray[/caption] A statement issued by the government says there was “no clarity on the facts of the incidents of violence” which occurred in the troubled district since Saturday, even after five days. The state cabinet directed police authorities to determine the facts of the case, including the identity of the so far unidentified deceased persons within the next 48 hours. The government also appointed Bashir Ahmad Bhat, District Magistrate Shopian, as an inquiry officer to probe firing that occurred at the Gagren camp on 7 and 11 September. At the meeting, the state government also directed the Director General of Police to replace the CRPF personnel at Gagran Camp with a contingent of the Jammu and Kashmir Armed Police. The government had imposed an indefinite curfew in three major districts of South Kashmir — Shopian, Kulgam and Pulwama — following massive protests demanding immediate arrest of CRPF soldiers allegedly involved in the killing of five people in Shopian town and removal of the camp. On Thursday, despite a strict curfew in place, protesters clashed with security forces in different localities of Shopian. Police had to fire teargas shells to disperse the crowd but protests are continue in different areas of South Kashmir, eye witnesses said. Five people were killed in Shopian town since Saturday, in two different incidents of alleged firing by the CRPF. Although the CRPF said on Saturday that the three killed were militants, police later said that only one of them was a militant and others were civilians. However, senior Congress leader Ghulam Hassan Khan said the person police are calling a militant was actually a labourer who had nothing to do with militancy. “Police claims are false. Being the resident of Shopian, I can tell you with authority that he was innocent. He was Bihari labourer who was shot dead by CRPF men because he was the witness of the barbaric act. To shelve the matter, the police buried him at an unknown place in the forest,” Khan, who has served as a minister in the Kashmir government, said. On Wednesday, the CRPF again fired allegedly without any provocation at a man who was passing near the camp. Rafiq Ahmad Rather, 28, the driver of a Tata Sumo was killed when he was passing the CRPF Gagren camp, after which massive protests rocked Shopian, resulting in the imposition of a curfew. Locals said Rather was killed by the CRPF from the Gagren camp, when people were protesting peacefully, and demanding the immediate arrest of the errant soldiers responsible for the 7 September firing. Three other people, including a woman, sustained bullet wounds, eye witnesses said. Fayaz Ahmad Mir, who lives adjacent to the Gagren CRPF post told Firstpost that the man was passing the camp when the CRPF personnel fired at him. “He was later taken to the hospital were doctors declared him brought dead.” The Inspector General of Police in Kashmir, Abdul Gani Mir told Firstpost that the police was investigating into what lead to the killing of three civilians. “We are also investigating the Saturday firing in which four people were killed. But we are sure one of the four in Saturday’s firing was a militant. Locals had claimed that he was a labourer from Bihar, but he was a militant,” Mir added. Locals in Shopian say they won’t stop the peaceful protests. “We will not listen to anyone this time around. Injustice and state brutality is a continuing agenda of the state in Shopian. We will not return home until these people are punished, and this camp is removed from here. These are trigger happy soldiers who kill people like rats,” Imtiyaz Ahamd, a resident of Baba Mohalla of Shopian said. A case has been registered in both the incidents, the Inspector General of Police added. However, CRPF spokesperson Kishore Prasad denied any firing by personnel posted at Gagren. “The CRPF did not open fire. Our men were not even deployed on the streets,” he said. Kashmir today observed a complete shutdown against the Shopian killing, while one of the sitting MLAs, who was who was protesting against the killings in Srinagar, was detained by police . MLA Langate Er Rashid said in Srinagar that Omar Abdullah, was enjoying a musical concert while children in Shopian were being killed in broad day light by the CRPF. “This protest was against the dead conscience of the Indian society that has maintained criminal silence over killings in Shopian,” Er Rashid said soon after his release. “The agitation against injustice and daily killings in our town won’t stop until and unless the people responsible for the killing of these children are brought to the book,” Nazi Ahamd, a member of the Traders Federation of Shopian said. “Even if one person is killed every day we will make sure this camp is removed from this place,” he added.