Security forces kill six Kashmir protesters

AFP/New Delhi

Border Security Force (BSF) troops fired on demonstrators who had gathered outside their headquarters in the district of Gool, two police officers said on condition of anonymity.

“It was mayhem. Six are dead and dozens injured. The death toll could rise further,” said an officer.

Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde ordered an investigation into the shooting and appealed for calm in the tense region.

“I have ordered an inquiry to be conducted without any loss of time to ascertain the circumstances leading to the firing,” Shinde said in a statement. “I assure that any use of excessive force or irresponsible action shall be dealt with strictly,” he said.

“The loss of life in this incident is particularly saddening,” the minister said, without confirming the number killed.

Protesters clashed with troops after an incident on Wednesday evening at the madrassa attached to a mosque in Gool, witnesses said.

The head of the madrassa, Qari Shabir, said four BSF troopers came in looking for militants, at the same time that a caretaker was alone there reciting prayers for the holy month of Ramadan. “They beat him up...that is when Abdul Lateef (the caretaker) raised an alarm and people started to assemble and the word spread,” Shabir said by telephone from Gool, 230kms south of the state’s main city of Srinagar.

Shabir said the security forces later sealed the premises. Other local residents said the troops had entered the mosque to complain about the loud recitation of prayers.

The angry protesters clashed outside the BSF base yesterday with troops who started firing, witnesses said.

“The BSF soldiers fired indiscriminately, downing protesters left, right and centre,” one witness who declined to be identified said.

A top BSF officer said troops only opened fire when a “mob attacked” the base where arms and ammunition were stored, adding that one soldier was injured. “We are a professional force. We respect all the tenets of all religions,” Rajeev Krishan, inspector general of the BSF, told reporters in Jammu, another main city of the region.

Omar Abullah, the state’s chief minister, warned that the “ghastly incident” risked igniting wider unrest. “It is highly unacceptable to shoot at unarmed protesters just because they were reportedly protesting manhandling of an imam of their area,” Abdullah said in a statement. “This shocking act warrants and demands the severest of condemnation in the strongest possible terms.”

In a separate incident yesterady, suspected rebels shot dead two policemen who were bodyguards of a top cardiologist, near the doctor’s home in the town of Pampore, 15kms south of Srinagar. “Three terrorists attacked and injured the doctor while he was walking towards a car along with his bodyguards,” Abdul Gani Mir, Kashmir’s police chief, said.