In a shocking incident in Kashmir’s Sopore on Wednesday morning, a 60-year-old civilian was killed in the cross-firing when an encounter broke out between militants and security forces. The civilian was killed right in front of his three-year-old grandson after which heart-wrenching pictures of the boy sitting on his grandfather's dead body surfaced on the internet.
The family of the deceased has accused the security forces of shooting the civilian, identified as Bashir Ahmad Khan. On Wednesday, a video went viral on social media, where a relative claimed the deceased was going to some work in Sopore early morning and alleged that CRPF started firing there and killed him.
Khan’s son Suhail Ahmad asked why his father would have come out of his car in the middle of the firing. “They say he was killed in cross-firing. Then he should have died inside the vehicle,” he told Indian Express. He added that there was no bullet mark on the vehicle.
The deceased's daughter has also blamed the security forces. “My father was brought down from the vehicle and shot dead by the security forces,” his daughter alleged.
The three-year-old also claimed that the "policewala" shot his grandfather. According to a report in The Wire, when the child was asked what happened to his grandfather, he said “goli mari” (he was shot). By whom, he replied “policewale ne” (by the police). “Papa (grandfather) ko goli mari policewale ne (A policeman killed grandpa),” he said.
Newslaundry's Manisha Pande and many other Twitter users said that the three-year-old child should be left alone. "Am I the only one who finds this headline and report on The Wire jarring? Why are we quoting a three-year-old who's gone through such severe trauma? The media should just leave the child alone. He's 3!" she said.
Meanwhile, Zulfiqar Hasan, ADG CRPF on Thursday said that the allegations that the CRPF took out the civilian from the car and shot him is untrue and reiterated that "he got caught in the firing by terrorists".
"It was a very unfortunate incident that he had got caught in the firing by the terrorists. I think some people have tried to give it a spin by saying that the CRPF took him (the deceased civilian) out of the vehicle and shot him. It's totally untrue," ANI quoted Hasan as saying.
"After examining a lot of technical details including pictures, we are very confident about what has happened. I would request the people that they should blame the militants that they are hiding inside mosques. The man has been killed by the terrorists firing from a mosque," he added.
The ADG further said that "there is no question" of the involvement of the CRPF in the incident. "The firing by the CRPF was restrained so that we do not cause any damage to the mosque," he said further.
(With ANI inputs)
