Mob lynches cop in Kashmir
srinagar — A police officer was beaten to death by an angry mob outside a mosque in Jammua a nd Kashmir, police said on Friday, as tensions in the volatile region ran high.
Witnesses said the mob attacked Mohammad Ayub Pandith late on Thursday after he fired his pistol when confronted by worshippers at the mosque in the main city of Srinagar who suspected him of being a government spy.
A police statement said Pandith, a deputy superintendent with the security wing of the state police, had been “attacked and beaten to death by a mob”.
He “sacrificed his life in the line of duty,” the statement said.
Witnesses said worshippers confronted Pandith, who was not wearing a uniform, as he took pictures with his mobile phone outside the Jamia (Grand) Mosque in Srinagar during the late-night prayers.
The outnumbered officer tried to free himself and fired in self-defence, injuring three of the attackers. But he was overpowered and lynched.
“Some youths at that point immediately pounced on him, snatched his weapon and more people came and started beating him up,” a witness said, declining to give his name. One report said he had been stripped before he was murdered. He had been outside the mosque for some time and many locals who regularly visited the shrine knew him.
On Friday, the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti laid a wreath on the body of Pandit at the district police lines here. She then said: “The murder of this officer is actually a murder of trust.
“He had allowed his security guards to go home so that they could observe ‘Shab-e-Qadr’ at their own mosques. “He went to perform his duty to protect people whose goodwill he trusted and it is this trust which has been murdered. “Jammu and Kashmir Police is one of the finest police forces in the country. They exercise maximum restraint while dealing with the law and order situation. I fear what will happen if this police force loses its patience.”
The death of the officer, who was not deployed in anti-militancy or intelligence gathering, has shocked the Jammu and Kashmir Police.
A grim Director General of Police S.P. Vaid said: “An officer being lynched by the very people he had gone to protect proves we have reached a stage where very little difference is left between humanity and barbarism.”
Kashmir’s chief cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq condemned the murder in a tweet.
“Mob violence & public lynching is outside the parameters of our values & religion,” he said.
Hundreds of stone-throwing residents clashed with police in the area after the killing and authorities have imposed restrictions on people’s movements, fearing protests. —