SRINAGAR, 24 February 2006 — Thousands of angry Kashmiris protested against Indian Army yesterday blaming it for the killing of four youths in a shootout Tuesday, sources said.
Protests spread across the valley yesterday with a boy being critically injured in firing and the hard-line Hurriyat faction calling for a two-day strike.
A day after four boys between the ages of 8 and 18 were allegedly killed in Doodipora village in the border district of Kupwara when they were caught in crossfire between the army and the militants, the ripples were felt all over.
In Srinagar, angry protesters pelted stones on police and paramilitary forces in the densely populated area of Maisuma. Amid the protests, a youth was shot in the head in the nearby Court Road area and shifted to hospital where doctors said his condition was very critical.
Farooq Ahmad, deputy inspector general of police (central Kashmir), denied that he was shot by security forces and said two assailants wearing phirans fired at him from close range. Head of the hard-line faction of the All-parties Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who was put under house arrest, told journalists that he had called for a shutdown today and tomorrow to protest the Kupwara killings.
In a related development, another Hurriyat leader, Bilal Gani Lone of the Mirwaiz Umar Farooq group, was also detained by police when he was going to his hometown Handwara, two kilometers from Doodipora. Police intercepted him and prevented him from going further to take part in the protests.
Police on Wednesday said the four were killed when gunmen and soldiers exchanged fire in Doodipora. But protesters and villagers blamed the army for the killings.
Crying villagers refused to bury the four bodies, instead placing them - wrapped in white cloth - on a bed in the middle of a road junction.
“We will lay them to rest only after soldiers (involved in the shooting) are punished,” Mohammad Hafiz, a resident of Handwara said.
An eyewitness at the scene said nearly 6,000 people, including women and children, had gathered in the village by mid-morning to grieve over the bodies and express their anger.
“Security forces opened unprovoked fire on boys who were playing cricket in a field,” 60-year-old Abdul Aziz, a resident of Doodipora, said.
The army denied it was to blame, and said militants were responsible for the killings, which it says happened during a search operation for rebel fighters.
An army statement said that two of the dead, who it added were both aged 20, were targeted by militants.
“Terrorists specifically targeted Samad Mir, a known worker of (militant group) Lashkar-e-Taiba ... along with Shaikh Alam presuming that these two would provide information to the army about the location of the hiding terrorists,” an army statement said.
It said the other two boys were killed in an exchange of fire. The chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir state has ordered an inquiry.
As the protests continued, police in Srinagar fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of demonstrators protesting against the killing of a civilian in another shooting incident yesterday.
The protesters blamed paramilitary police for the death, a charge the force denied.
