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Kashmiris protest to shunt out
CRPF camps from their villages
WSN Network
SRINAGAR:
Notwithstanding the repeated shame courted by
India’s
Army and CRPF for killing innocent Kashmiris in fake encounters or
unprovoked firing, its troops are becoming too trigger happy. Once
again, a civilian was killed by CRPF in unprovoked firing triggering
massive protests as thousands came out on the roads in Pakharpora in
the southern district of Pulwama on April 4, demanding shifting of
the CRPF camp from the area. With April 20 as the deadline, people
have threatened to leave their homes. People from Khaigam village of
Pakharpora and adjoining villages want the government to shift the
CRPF camp from the area. They blocked the road connecting Pakharpora
to Chrare- Sharief for hours together. Ghulam Mohi-u-Deen, a
carpenter, was allegedly killed in CRPF firing during a “search
operation” at his home in Khaigam in Pakharpora on March 18,
triggering widespread protests in south Kashmir. For four days,
Khaigam remained shut, with people demanding punishment to the
culprits as well as shifting of the CRPF camp from the area.
Following the
protests, CRPF suspended four of its troops, including an assistant
commander. The government ordered an inquiry into the incident and
police registered a murder case against the troopers. Taking a cue
from the Bomai residents, a village in the northern district of
Baramulla, where two youth were killed in Army firing on February
21, the people in Pakharpora also formed a joint committee headed by
a local farmer Abdul Rahim Bhat, to pressure the government to
remove the camp. Uncompromising protest demonstrations headed by a
coordination committee formed by people in Bomai had forced the
government to shift the Army camp from the area on March 24.
8
April 2009
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