Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Sunday registered an FIR againstarmy personnel in connection with the death of two civilians in retaliatoryfiring by Army in the Shopian district on Saturday in which nine otherswere injured.
According to reports, a murder and attempt to murder case was filed againstArmy personnel belonging to the 10 Garhwal unit of the Army, including aMajor rank officer in connection with the death of two civilians in firingat Ganowpora in Shopian after an Army convoy was attacked with stones.
The FIR was reportedly filed at the behest of the ruling PDP-BJP government.
The case was registered under Sections 302 (murder) and 307 (attempt tomurder), a senior J&K Police official was quoted as saying by ANI.
The Mehbooba Mufti government also ordered a magisterial probe into theincident though the Defence spokesman maintained that the soldiers openedfire in self-defence.
State’s Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti earlier called up Defence MinisterNirmala Sitharaman and expressed anguish over the civilian deaths.
Sitharaman, on her part, assured Mufti that she would seek a detailedreport on the matter and ensure that such incidents do not recur.
“The Chief Minister said every civilian killing, notwithstanding howerroneously made, impairs a political process that has been put on trackthrough hard work by all political parties in the state,” a statementissued by the J&K government later said.
The Chief Minister also conveyed her condolences to the victims’ familiesand directed the district administration to conduct a probe into theincident.
The development came a day after two youths were killed and nine othersinjured allegedly in a retaliatory fire when an army patrol party wasattacked with stones at Ganovpora in Shopian.
The deceased were identified as Javid Bhat and Sohul Bhat.
Reacting to the incident, the Army said that it was forced to open fire inself-defence.
In a statement, the Army said an administrative convoy was passing throughGanaupura chowk in Shopian around 3 pm on Saturday when it came “underunprovoked and intense stone pelting” by a group of over 100 people.
”Within no time, their numbers swelled to 200-250 persons,” it said.