Civilian killed in exchange of fire between forces, terrorists
SRINAGAR: A 20-year-old civilian on Sunday was killed in an ‘exchange of fire during a chance encounter’ between security forces and terrorists in south Kashmir’s Shopian district, police said.
Locals, however, claimed no encounter had taken place and that the civilian was shot by security forces. Political parties condemned the killing and demanded a probe into the killing. According to the police, the incident took place after terrorists fired at a joint patrol party of a special operations group of police from Pulwama and CRPF’S 182 Battalion, near the bridge connecting Litter Pulwama with Turkwangam in Shopian.
“During exchange of fire between terrorist and our joint team, a civilian namely Shoib Ah Ganie, resident of Turkwangam, Shopian got injured,” Kashmir police tweeted.
Ganie was rushed to the district hospital in Pulwama where he succumbed to injuries, officials familiar with the matter said. The terrorists, meanwhile, managed to escape into the nearby orchards. “Search is still going on. Case has been registered and investigation taken up,” Kashmir police said in another tweet.
Sunday’s killing of a civilian, the second since May 10, occurred even as Kashmir IGP Vijay Kumar recently said that police were trying to bring some changes in their standard SOPS during encounters to prevent civilian casualties. Dismissing police’s claim of an encounter, local residents said Ganie was shot at by security forces.