KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
Army on Thursday said that it “regrets” the death of the 30-year-old lecturer of Shaar Shaali in Khrew in Pulwama district, saying that it “will investigate” the incident.
Lieutenant General Satish Dua, GOC Chinar Corps, said that death of the civilian is “regrettable”.
“It was a joint patrol (of police, CRPF). One death has happened and I am aware of it,” Lt Dua told reporters on the side lines of Passing Out Parade of new recruits into army at the Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry Regimental Centre at Rangreth here.
“We have a due process of investigation and we will investigate into the incident,” Dua added when asked that residents of the village said that Shabir Ahmad Mangoo was beaten to death by army.
According to locals of the village, Shabir Ahmad Mangoo, who is survived by his wife and a toddler son, was killed when army 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.
On ransacking of the houses, the GOC repeated that that the incident will be investigated.
Lt Dua when asked about army being deployed to defuse the on-going situation and their meeting with Chief minister Mehbooba Mufti recently, said that the meeting was a about “reviewing the situation”.
“Deployment of army to restore law and order was not discussed (with chief minister). In no situation are we going with police, CRPF for law and order,” he said.
The army commander, however, added that in situations where army “needs to extricate policemen from mobs, our men got to such places.”
He said that to “de-escalate the situation, security forces and the government need to control the cycle of violence”.
“I appeal youth to give peace a chance as chief minister appealed to them during her independence speech. Children are not going to schools, fruit dealers face problem to take out fruit from markets, patients can’t to hospitals,” he said.
Lt Dua said that traffic will be “restored from tomorrow on Highway and inter-district roads by security forces for army convoys and public vehicles”.
