Srinagar
The locals of Daril village in Handwara on Wednesday rejected that the claims made by the army about the killing of a militant in an encounter yesterday and termed it as baseless and fabricated.
They said the slain is a civilian, and identified him as Shahid Bashir Mir son of Bashir Ahmad Mir resident of Daril village of Tarathpora upper Ramhal. He was student of 2nd year of Handwara Degree College.
The locals said that Shahid had left home on Monday morning along with a herd of sheep. He later went missing for past few days. “Yesterday army claimed to have killed a militant in an encounter at Hangnikoot Handwara.
The killed person was actually missing Shahid and has been killed in a fake encounter,” the locals alleged. They also said that he had bullet injury on head and chest.
Meanwhile massive protests have erupted in the native village of the slain. Reports said that the protestors have refused to bury the body of slain Shahid and are demanding action against the army.
Kashmir Life tried to contact defence spokesman Rajesh Kalia, he did not receive the call. The police officials in district administration too did not speak about the killing. However DGP Dr S P has said that police is investigating the matter.
Meanwhile independent Langate lawmaker Engineer Raheed has condemned the killing and termed it as a “cold blooded murder”.
Pertinently, on Tuesday army claimed to have killed a militant in Hangnikoot area of Handwara.
