Srinagar, Feb. 13: The BSF has placed a senior officer under suspension and launched an internal inquiry into his conduct by an officer of the rank of inspector-general after his junior told the Srinagar police that it was on his orders that the fatal shooting of a
local teenager took place last week. The incident had sparked off widespread protests and shutdowns across the Kashmir Valley.
The officer in the dock, R.K. Birdi, has been removed from duty along the Line of Control and relocated to Srinagar to make him available to a police investigating team. The police has, meanwhile, sought access to the accused to interrogate him and is also weighing up legal obligations in the runup to his imminent arrest. The accused, who is the commanding officer of the BSF’s 68th Battalion is, however, reported to have denied the charge.
BSF jawan Lakhvinder Kumar, arrested by police earlier this week, has during questioning revealed that he had only followed the orders of his CO and fired three bullets from his automatic rifle, one of which hit 16-year-old Zahid Farooq in the chest. The slain student was among a group of teenagers returning home after a game of cricket on the banks of the Dal Lake in Srinagar when they were allegedly confronted by the troopers along the Boulevard here on February 5. BSF sources said the CO has already been questioned by his seniors at the force’s regional headquarters at Sann’at Nagar here. The BSF has constituted an internal inquiry into the killing of Zahid after constable Kumar was found "prima facie" involved. The inquiry would ascertain the facts of the case and sequence of events in entirety. The inquiry will be headed by the BSF I-G (Tripura range), the sources said, adding that all the information relating to the case will be shared with the special investigating team (SIT) of the Jammu and Kashmir police, which is already on the job. Constable Lakhvinder’s reported statement to the SIT is somewhat close to the version of a witnesses — the slain teenager’s friend Bilal Ahmed Najar — who had earlier recorded before the Srinagar CJM that a man in civvies accompanying the BSF jawans, who appeared to be an officer, had snatched the gun from one of them to target Zahid.
Age Correspondent