A youth who was injured after allegedly being run over by a paramilitary CRPF vehicle, during clashes between protestors and forces in Srinagar, has succumbed to his injuries.
Fearing large-scale protests, the government has snapped mobile internet services in the Srinagar.
Qaiser Amin was one among the two persons who were critically wounded after a CRPF vehicle allegedly knocked them down in old town Srinagar during stone-throwing protests on Friday afternoon.
According to the eyewitnesses on Friday afternoon a lone CRPF vehicle came under stone throwing after it entered the old city area. The CRPF vehicle while trying to move out, allegedly knocked down Qaisar Amin and ran over another youth Younis Ahmed, whose pictures have gone viral on social media. Both the wounded were moved to the Sheri Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences at Soura, where Qaisar succumbed to his injuries late last night. 21-year-old Qaiser is survived by two teenage sisters and had recently started Kashmir Art business. Both his parents had died.
The CRPF spokesman told local reporters that a group of over 500 protestors surrounded the CRPF vehicle that was ferrying a senior officer. He said the mob tried to open the back door of the vehicle that was closed from inside to lynch the CRPF men, adding that they broke the window glasses of the vehicle. He refuted claims of knocking down the two protesters, saying the driver of the vehicle “slowed down his speed and didn’t run over the youth.”
“Earlier they tied people to the fronts of jeeps & paraded them around villages to deter protestors now they just drive their jeeps right over protestors. Is this your new SOP @MehboobaMufti sahiba? Ceasefire means no guns so use jeeps?,” former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah tweeted.
Last year on April 9 during the bypolls of Srinagar parliamentary elections, Major Nitin Gogai tied a civilian Farooq Ahmed Dar of Chill Brass in Beerwah to the bonnet of his jeep and paraded him around different villages ostensibly to deter stone-throwing youths. Though the incident created public outrage in the Valley, Army chief General Bipin Rawat issued a commendation card to the Major.
National Conference spokesman, Junaiz Azim Mattu said “The images of a man being run over by a CRPF gypsy are haunting. The gypsy was attacked - that's a fact - yes. However, it's a failure of the local police in the area to have allowed a CRPF gypsy to pass through an almost 200 strong hostile crowd. Extremely unfortunate.”
Incidentally, on May 9 Qaiser had posted on his Facebook wall a video story of another youth Adil Ahmad Yatoo, who was run over by the forces vehicle on April 9.
The police had initially described the incident at Noorbagh in which Adil was crushed to death as a road accident. When a video clip surfaced that revealed Adil was deliberately run over by the vehicle, the police ordered an inquiry and initiated legal proceedings against the driver of the vehicle that crushed the youth.
