Day 12: Kashmir’s Shopian Town Reels Under Curfew:- An indefinite curfew is in its 12th day in Shopian town of south Kashmir to prevent violence over the killing of five people by paramilitary CRPF, police said. The continuous restrictions have led to growing difficulties for the local residents. Four people were killed on September 7 by the CRPF in Gagren. Three of them were civilians while the fourth is yet to be identified. Four days later, another civilian was shot dead when he was coming out of an alley in the same area. The main opposition PDP has criticised the government saying it was doing “everything to hush up the killing of five innocents” by imposing curfew and restrictions. “The police has not even entertained the FIR lodged by the father of Tawseef Ahmad, one of the victims of the CRPF carnage,” it said. The government has initiated a magisterial inquiry into the killings and has also directed that the CRPF personnel in Gagren village be replaced by the state policemen. The Union Home Minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde has also ordered a detailed inquiry into the killings. However separatists have dismissed the inquiries as eyewash. Meanwhile no witnesses have turned up to depose before the authorities regarding the killings for two days. Deputy commissioner Shopian had appealed to people to come forward with information, if any. A local daily even reports that no one will ever do so. It quotes a group of locals saying they feared reprisal from the authorities itself. Local residents have complained of shortage of essential food items and medicine due to the nearly two-week long clampdown. A local newspaper quoted a group of residents as saying the government continued the curfew to make them suffer. “They want to break our resolve and force us to give up our demand for justice to victims but we will not succumb,” one of them, Muzaffar Ahmad, told the newspaper.
Posted on: Wed, 18 Sep 2013 14:28:29 +0000