- 15-year-old Amir hit by bullet, another civilian Jalal had no external injuries
- 3 boys hit by pellets in both eyes, 2 in one eye
- Police was fired at from within the crowd: DIG
- Over 20 injured in firing on protesters
Two Lashkar-e-Toiba militants were killed in a gunfight with troops in Padgampora village of Awantipora in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district. A boy was killed after being hit by bullets during clashes with force personnel near the encounter site while a youth also died during the clashes and cause of his death was being ascertained.
At least 20 people also sustained injuries in forces action on protesters.
Commanding Officer 55 RR Colonel Kamal Nauriyal told Kashmir Post that police, army and paramilitary personnel laid siege around Padgampora village of Awantipora early this morning after receiving information about presence of militants there.
He said as troops cordoned the area and zeroed-in on a residential house, where the militants were hiding, a militant was spotted jumping from window of the house.
“He was challenged by troops. He opened fire and the security men also returned the fire. The militant was killed in the retaliatory firing,” Kamal said.
He said the slain militant was identified as LeT militant Jahangir Ganaie of Quil village of Pulwama.
His accomplice Mohammad Shafi Shergujri kept exchanging fire with the forces despite surrender appeals made by his wife and children, who were brought to the encounter site.
The militant’s family was brought to the encounter site so that they can press him to surrender and lay down weapons.
The army officer said the militant turned down the surrender offer and fired on the troops. “The fire was returned by the troops and in the exchange of fire, the militant was killed”.
Sources said the house, where the militant was holed up, was completely razed to ground by forces.
“The troops blow up the house by using IED. Two adjacent houses also suffered massive damage,” they said.
At about 8 am as the news about encounter spread, hundreds of people from Padgampora and adjoining villages made persistent effort to break the cordon and stage protests to give militants a chance to escape from the area.
“Hundreds of people, despite complete blockage of roads by forces used alternate ways to try and march towards the encounter site,” the locals said, adding forces fired bullets, pellets and tear smoke shells to disperse the protesters.
At least 20 people sustained injuries in the forces firing.
“11 of the injured had bullet wounds, one of whom identified as 15-year-old Amir Nazir Wani son of Nazir Ahmad Wani of Begumbagh Kakpora died on way to the hospital. 9 others had pellet injuries,” Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Pulwama, Dr Talat Jabeen, told Kashmir Post.
She said some of the injured were referred to hospitals in Srinagar for specialized treatment.
Another civilian, Jalal Din of Tahab area was rushed to Pulwama district hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead with no marks of any injuries.
“He was brought dead to the hospital. We have conducted X-Rays and other radiological investigations to see if there were any internal injuries, but there were none,” Dr Rasheed Parra said, Medical Superintendent of the district hospital told Kashmir Post.
He said that a Cardiac arrest might be a probable cause.
“If somebody runs for his life, he can have a cardiac arrest or may be a chest trauma but we are not sure,” he said.
The locals said Jalal fell down as forces were chasing protestors and was rushed to the hospital, where he was brought dead.
Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of police South Kashmir Range, S P Pani, told media persons that police exercised maximum restraint while dealing with protesters, who tried to storm the encounter site.
“But then somebody from the crowd fired at police men injuring at least 2 of our men, who are stable now. During these clashes, a civilian was also killed,” Pani told reporters at police station Pulwama.
The locals, however, alleged that the police fired indiscriminately at the protesting people, killing one and injuring many.
The clashes continued while the forces tried to retrieve the bodies of slain militants and even while the forces were moving out of the village after completion of the operation.
On a stretcher, a boy with eyes shut and face pockmarked with pellets is asking his friends to save his eyes. The drops of blood trickle from his eyes, making him feel that he has turned blind. “Blood is not stopping, I have lost my eyes,” says the pellet hit boy, Riyaz Ahmad.
His friends wipe the blood and tell him, “Don’t worry, we will not let you go blind” as they rush him to the CT-Scan room.
The horror of pellets has returned and the doctors at SMHS hospital are gearing up to treat the injured from Padgampora area of Awantipora, Pulwama which witnessed massive clashes following an encounter between militants and government forces. Many people were injured in the bid to help the militants escape by pelting stones at the forces.
Another pellet injured from Padgampora, Showkat Ahmad whose left eye has become swollen says, “We were pelting stones to save our militant brothers and police fired pellets at us.”
Fourteen-year-old Showkat was brought to the hospital by his friends.
Speaking to Kashmir Post, they said: “The encounter started at 3 in the morning and we heard that militants were holed up in a building. All boys of the nearby villages assembled and started raising slogans and pelted stones at government forces that were using all their force to kill our brothers (militants).We couldn’t see our brothers getting killed, so we took to streets.”
According to district hospital Pulwama and concerned primary health centre, 11 people received bullet injuries and one of them has succumbed later. “Nine pellet injured victims were received and two people with stone injury were also brought to the hospital.”
Twenty-year-old boy Arif’s eye was injured by stone was referred by the doctors at District Hospital Pulwama to SMHS hospital Srinagar.
“I was at the entrance of my house trying to make sense of what was happening around and people hurled stone at me, injuring my left eye.”
Commenting about the nature of the injury of the six boys that were admitted in the hospital, Head Department Ophthalmology at SMHS hospital, Dr Tariq Qureshi said, “Three people have been hit by pellets in both their eyes, two have been hit in one eye and one had a minor injury.”
