KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
A 30-year-old college lecturer was beaten to death by army in Shaar Shaali in Khrew area of Pulwama district on Wednesday late night, taking the civilian death toll to 67 in the on-going mass civil uprising in the Valley.
According to locals of the village, Shabir Ahmad Mangoo, who is survived by his wife and a toddler son, was killed when 50 RR of Indian Army based in Shaar village and SOG of JKP raided houses in the village on Wednesday night and ran amok while beating civilians.
“Shabir was ruthlessly beaten by the army and he was declared brought dead by the doctors in Pampore hospital,” the villagers said.
The villagers said that scores of youth were injured as the army beat them to pulp.
Doctors in SMHS said that 24 civilians were received in injured condition on from Khrew. “All the patients were ruthlessly beaten by forces,” the doctors said.
Protests broke out in Khrew and adjacent areas in Pampore against the killing of the civilian and beating of others.
Locals in Khrew said that peaceful protests were going on in the area on Wednesday. “There were no clashes at all,” a local said.
“Given the tense situation which has arisen out of civilian killings in Kashmir, we finish dinner early and go to sleep,” a youth from the area said. “We were done with our late evening food by 9:30,” he said, “but by 10:00 PM, forces snapped power supply to our area-Shaar Shaali,” the youth said. Those whom Kashmir Life spoke to demanded that their identities not be revealed “for obvious reasons”.
“Army men and SOG personnel came and went berserk damaging anything and everything which came their way,” the locals of Shaar said.
“First they dragged men out of their beds and beat them blue and black,” locals said, “women and children could not tolerate the shrieks and cries of male folk so they ran outside their homes to save them.”
The locals said that army men after beating males ruthlessly started beating women. “They neither cared for gender nor age,” they said. “It was Karbala!”
After making people cry in pain with no one to console them, the forces destroyed the private vehicles. “It is beyond imagination what army did to us our properties,” the locals said.
Such is the fear of forces, the injured persons in SMHS Hospital Srinagar “refuse to return home”. “They will come again,” one of them said, “they won’t spare us.”
The forces the fled the village around 1 AM detaining over a dozen youth. One of them was beaten to death.
He was identified as Shabir Ahmad Mango, a 30 year old temporary college teacher. His brother, Zahoor Ahmad was seriously injured in forces action and according to locals was rushed to SMHS Hospital Srinagar.
Shabir’s body was handed over to his family by sub-district Pampore around 6:15 Am today. Reports said that army had approached police asking them to hand over body of Shabir to his family. But police had refused.
National Conference member, Yawar Masoodi, in a detailed statement over the incident said that army had thrown dead body of Shabir on a road in Lethpora area after he was beaten to death. The body, Masoodi said, was found by a Sumo driver who drove it to the Pampore hospital.
(With additional inputs from Kashmir News Service.)
