Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday visited the home of the Class 12 student killed in CISF firing during a protest over erratic power supply outside NHPC office at Boniyar, Uri, near the Line of Control and admitted the circumstances of the death are “tragic, shocking and inexcusable”.
The chief minister was confronted by angry crowds and while returning from the slain youth’s home his cavalcade was attacked with stones by angry residents at Boniyar bazaar, about 100 km northwest of here, witnesses said. He flew into Boniyar from winter capital Jammu in a helicopter and then walked to the house of the slain youth at Sakin Brinyat at a distance of 2 km from the helipad to console the bereaved family and assure justice.
Meanwhile, CISF chief N.R. Das on Tuesday visited the firing spot and said his force will conduct a parallel internal inquiry into the incident.
He promised that the guilty will be punished. Mr Das said initial reports suggested that his men were “outnumbered” at the protest site.
The chief minister told villagers who had gathered outside the residence of 19-year-old Altaf Ahmed Sood and were furious at his “brutal murder” that the incident could not be described in any other words in an apparent attempt to pacify them. He said, “Altaf Ahmed’s death is a clear-cut case of murder. It is unfortunate that he was gunned down when he had books in his hands and was returning from a tuition class. He was shot twice in chest. He was murdered. There is no other way of terming this incident.”
The local police has arrested five CISF personnel on charge of murder.
Later, the chief minister told a national television channel in an interview that the protests over the erratic power supply are genuine. “Their anger is genuine. Our response was wrong,” he said, adding, “You don’t deal with a genuine protest the way you did… this was not a protest for azadi, this was not a protest for Pakistan. This was a protest for genuine demand that people have for electricity.”