Family of Zainakote youth, who police said was killed after being hit by a teargas shell on his head, has termed the claim of police as “baseless” by saying their son was killed by a “live bullet fired by CRPF”. Nazir Ahmad Dar, father of Gowhar Ahmad Dar of Zainakote told KNS that police has lied to media over the killing of his son. “My son was fired from point blank by CRPF. He was killed by a live bullet fired by CRPF which doctors in SKIMS also confirmed to us. He was not killed by any teargas shell as police and CRPF has claimed,” Dar told KNS over phone.
Refuting the police claims that his son was among the youth protesters on Highway, he said: “My son was not participating in any protest. Our home is one kilometer away from the Srinagar-Baramulla Highway. He had gone to buy milk from the market,” said Dar, who lives in Mustafabad in Zainakote at HMT on Srinagar outskirts. Gowhar, 21, an engineering student at SSM Parihaspora in Pattan, was killed on Saturday evening hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally here. Dar, quoting the eyewitnesses, said that there was no stone pelting going on when his son and his cousin went to the market to buy milk. “Two CRPF vehicles came rushing from 44-CRPF camp, located in HMT watch factory, on the Highway and the CRPF men got down from it. Their officer was wearing a track suit. They fired at my son near Masjid Ahlihadith in Zainakote at 5.15 pm,” he said, quoting eyewitnesses. “He was rushed to JVC and then SKIMS where he succumbed,” he said. Deputy Inspector General of Police, Central Kashmir, Ghulam Hassan Bhat had on Saturday told KNS that Gowhar Ahmad Dar was hit by a tear gas shell in his head. A police official in Parimpora had told KNS that the youth were pelting stones on 44-CRPF camp here, and during clashes the youth was hit by a tears gas shell in his head fired by CRPF and later he succumbed to his injuries. However, PRO CRPF Bhavesh Chaudhary told KNS: “Both police and CRPF were present there to disperse the mob that was pelting the camp with stones. Both fired shells,” Chaudhary had told KNS. The government had yesterday ordered a magisterial enquiry into the killing the youth to be conducted by Additional Deputy Commissioner Srinagar M.A. Baba. But the family dismissed the inquiry ordered by the government.
“What has happened to the hundreds of inquiries which the governments have ordered into the killings of hundreds of other youth like my son? Which policeman or other security forces’ men has been punished till now for killing our innocent youth,” the distraught Dar asked. “The inquiries are ordered simply to douse Kashmiris anger. Nothing will emerge from this inquiry. No one will be punished, and our anger against the killers of our sons will never lessen,” he said. (KNS)