Peer Merajuddin was driving his uncle, a J&K police officer, to Srinagar. His uncle says the car was not moving when a CRPF trooper opened fire.
New Delhi| On Wednesday, Hundreds of protesters in Kashmir clashed with security forces, hours after CRPF fatally shot a young man at a checkpoint.
On Wednesday, the 25-year-old, identified as Mehrajuddin Peer Shah was killed when Soldiers of the CRPF opened fire at his vehicle at a checkpoint on the Srinagar-Gulmarg highway.
Police said Shah was killed after he neglected signals to stop at two security checkpoints on the outskirts of Srinagar, the region’s main city. They said a military convoy was passing at the time, and soldiers fretted sabotage.
The victim was shot “when the car didn’t stop despite warning shots,” India’s CRPF said in a statement.
His uncle says he can’t believe his nephew was killed even after he displayed the CRPF troop his identity card.
He was rushed to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries, the force said.
However, Shah’s father, Ghulam Nabi, refuted the police account, saying his son did not drive through any checkpoints and was shot in cold blood. “Had soldiers fired at his vehicle while fleeing any checkpoint, his car would have got bullet marks,” he said.
Shah stopped his car when signalled by the soldiers, a witness told reporters.
Mehrajuddin Peer Shah’s elder brother Shabir Ahmad Shah works as a constable in the J&K Police.
The news of Mehrajuddin’s killing triggered protests in his village. Forces were deployed and the police resorted to shotgun pellets and tear gas to quiet the protestors who threw stones at them.
Shah’s body was returned to the family in the late evening and was buried in the family graveyard at his village.
The Budgam district administration has filed a first information report and started an investigation.
As per an estimate of total people killed over the past 30 years put forward by the Srinagar-based human rights organisation Coalition of Civil Society, the number is 70,000.
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