Two civilians, including a woman, were killed and 16 injured when the Army and police allegedly opened fire on a group of protesters close to the site of an encounter Kakapore in Pulwama, Kashmir.
At Kakapore in Pulwama where two students were killed during an encounter between security forces and militants, friends and family recalled the ambitions and the passions that used to drive Shaista Hameed and Danish Farooq.
Shaista, 22, of Lelhar village was sitting in her two-storey house watching a protest by locals when a bullet hit her face — police say this happened in the crossfire. A masters student at Maulana Azad University, she was the daughter of a storekeeper and wanted to “achieve something big” in her studies.
“Shaista was a brilliant student and wanted to do many courses. A few days ago she told me she would go for another degree after her results,’’ said her friend Shabroza.
“My daughter was killed in cold blood,” said Abdul Hameed, who had been planning to get Shaista married after her studies. “She was intelligent and humble, the youngest of my four children and everyone’s darling.”
Danish was the eldest son in his family that lives in a single-storey wood-and-brick house. “His father wanted him to become a top officer,” said Danish’s cousin Zahoor Ahmad. “On Sunday, he took Rs 100 from his mother to buy balls for his cricket team. When Army and policemen cordoned our village, he was playing cricket. When the protests began he left the game and joined the protests and security forces opened fire.”
Danish’s teacher Mudasir Ahmad Mir described him as an exceptional student. “Eleven students from here had appeared in the entrance test, only he qualified,” he said.
The state government has ordered a magisterial probe into the two deaths, to be conducted by additional deputy commissioner Shabaz Ahmad. Over the years, the state has never made public the report of any inquiry ordered into killings by security forces.
“Probes are ordered all the time. We all know what the results will be,” said Jalaluddin Bhat, a relative of Shaista.
