Srinagar: A CRPF vehicle on Friday ran over 3 locals in an attempt to get away from an angry mob in Srinagar’s Nowhatta area. Ahead of Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s visit to the Kashmir Vally, this incident has triggered a fresh wave of protest and criticism against the government.
“The incident took place when the CRPF vehicle, on its way back after dropping a senior officer, ran into a street protest,” said a police officer. Various video footages show that the vehicle encircled by a mob, people trying to force their way into the vehicle and the driver trying hard to get away. While some other video clips show the vehicle driving through the hostile group of people who are throwing stones and bricks from close range, and people removing one of the injured.
National Conference leader and former Chief Minister Umar Abdullah questioned CM Mehbooba Mufti’s silence over the incident. “Ceasefire means no guns so use jeeps,” he tweeted, asking Ms. Mufti if this was the standard operating procedure of dealing with protesters.
Earlier they tied people to the fronts of jeeps & paraded them around villages to deter protestors now they just drive their jeeps right over protestors. Is this your new SOP @MehboobaMufti sahiba? Ceasefire means no guns so use jeeps? https://t.co/42W6vGAPVi
— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) June 1, 2018
National Conference described the pictures of a man being run over by a CRPF gypsy “haunting”.
The gypsy was attacked – that’s a fact – yes. However, it’s a failure of the local police in the area to have allowed a CRPF gypsy to pass through an almost 200 strong hostile crowd,” National Conference spokesperson Junaid Azim Mattu tweeted, blaming the police for allowing the jeep to pass through a hostile crowd.
“Almost every single civilian casualty in Kashmir is due to continued, repeated failures at crowd control, sanitisation of encounter sites and policing blunders. It’s not rocket science! You allow a CRPF gypsy to speed through a hostile crowd – didn’t you know this could happen???,” Mr Mattu said.
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