SRINAGAR, 30 November 2004 — Two civilians were shot dead by security forces during a scuffle between the villagers and soldiers in central Kashmir yesterday.
Police sources here said troops of 35 Rashtriya Rifles had started a cordon and search operation in Dangerpora village near Chadoora, 30 km from here in central Kashmir’s Budgam district, this morning.
As the troops mounted the operation they asked the villagers to collect in an open field. The troops later began house to house searches.
The villagers who had been gathered in the open field in biting cold demanded they be allowed to go home. When the soldiers refused, a scuffle broke out between the cordoning troops and the villagers. The troops roughed up two persons. The sources said some villagers then hurled “kangris” (traditional Kashmir fire pots) at the soldiers.
They said this incensed the soldiers who opened fire injuring three people, two of whom later succumbed to their injuries in hospital.
Budgam district administrator Khawaja Bashir Ahmed visited Dangerpora late in the afternoon. A senior army officer, who also visited the scene, assured the villagers that a court of inquiry has been ordered into the unfortunate incident.
Hundreds of villagers later held a demonstration against the killings.
Yesterday’s incident came in the wake of an encounter in Srinagar last Saturday in which the state police claimed to have gunned down four hardcore militants of front-line Lashkar-e-Taiba.
One of them, identified as Tajamul Haq, came from the north Kashmir town of Handwara where the residents have been holding daily protests since Saturday. The residents say Haq was innocent and had nothing to do with militancy.
The villagers have refused to bury Haq without an apology from Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed who described the Nishat encounter as a “great success for local police”.
In a statement, police here said Haq was an active militant and not “innocent as claimed by certain elements.”
India, citing a fall in rebel incursions from Pakistan, says it has begun to reduce forces in Kashmir during the winter. But Kashmiris, scarred by 15 years of conflict, say the troops cuts have made little difference to their lives.
Earlier, Home (interior) Minister Shivraj Patil was quoted as saying that following the sharp dip in rebel incursions into Jammu and Kashmir from Pakistan, violent attacks had also fallen off dramatically.
“We have built a fence and with proper monitoring by army and paramilitary forces, infiltration is down by 60 percent,” Patil told The Times of India in an interview.
Patil was comparing infiltration by militants in 2003 with the January to November period of this year. He did not give a number for the rebels crossing over each year or specify how the incursions were counted.
The average number of violent incidents had fallen to a six a day in 2004, compared with nine a day last year and 11 per day in 2002, he said.
India has fenced off most of the 742-km Line of Control (LoC), the heavily militarized cease-fire line that divides Indian Kashmir from the Pakistani-administered section.
Indian Army officers say construction of the 10-foot-high fence has reduced the number of guerrillas slipping into Jammu and Kashmir, thus enabling troops to deal with a far smaller number of insurgents more effectively.
This month, security agencies estimated 370 militants crossed into Kashmir in the first 10 months of 2004, down from 1,200 in the same period in 2003.
Islamabad denies India’s allegation of abetting the revolt in Kashmir, but says it provides moral and diplomatic support to Kashmiri “freedom fighters.”
— Additional input from Reuters
