Youth Died After Being Mowed Down by CRPF Vehicle

One youth died and another was injured after being hit by a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) vehicle on Friday during clashes outside Jamia Masjid in Nowhatta, Srinagar. This is the first casualty after the Centre announced ceasefire, halting operations to ensure that the month of Ramazan passes peacefully in the Valley. The incident has triggered a fresh wave of protests against the government. Meanwhile, internet services have been snapped.

Two civilians, namely, Yonis Ahmad and Kaiser Ahmad, were admitted to the Sher-I-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences where the latter succumbed to his injuries. A picture of Kaiser been mowed under the wheels of the CRPF vehicle has been doing rounds on the social media. Kaiser was a resident of Fateh Kadal in Srinagar. He had recently started a business, and is survived by two sisters. The incident took place a few days before Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s scheduled visit to the valley. Experts believe that the incident is going to affect CM Mehbooba Mufti’s efforts to restore peace in the valley.

While the police maintained that the incident was unintentional, and that they were on their way back after dropping a senior officer when they ran into the protesters. “The second in command of 28 CRPF Battalion was taking stock of security deployment. The mob tried to take the officer and his escort out of the vehicle. The youth climbed over the vehicle and started smashing it with stones, then the driver sensitively managed to take the vehicle out of the crowd,” The Hindu quoted CRPF spokesman Sanjay Sharma as saying.

"Look at the rural areas, like in South, people still can’t move out after dusk. You can hear firing now and then; you are terrorised. So how does one see anything being restored at all? Peace on the tables of politicians can’t be seen as restoration of peace. There were five grenade attacks yesterday and then a youth was mowed down by forces. If anyone says peace has come to Kashmir, they are disconnected from the reality of issues and people also," said Fahad Shah, editor of newsportal Kashmirwalla.

"With each incident like this or killings of any sorts, anger among the youth is only increasing. There is a high level of anger against the government in youth and by repressing it further, you are only complicating the situation. Peace will not be restored until concrete measures to address main political issue will not be taken – and while doing that, taking youth along can’t be ignored anymore by anyone," he added. Meanwhile, the opposition has taken a dig at the Mehbooba Mufti government. In his tweet, former CM Omar Abdullah said, “Ceasefire means no guns. Earlier they tied people to the fronts of jeeps and paraded them around villages to deter protesters. Now they just drive their jeeps right over protesters. Is this your new SOP Mehbooba Mufti sahiba?”

Abdullah referred to the incident when a man was tied to an army jeep on the polling day. The man named, Farooq Dar, resident of Khag Tesil of Budgam was on his way to his sister’s house after casting a vote when he was allegedly caught by the army personnel and tied to the bonnet of the vehicle. The incident had triggered huge outrage in the Valley.