Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti completed two years in office on Wednesday amid continued unrest in the Kashmir valley. The Shopian killings on 1 April, in which 13 militants and four civilians along with three Army jawans were killed, have proved to be a trigger for a fresh wave of protests and violence in Kashmir.
Mehbooba Mufti held a high level meeting with the security personnel on this. According to a senior official who was present in the meeting, the CM said that despite her repeated requests to the police and the security forces to avoid collateral damage, civilian deaths and the use of pellet guns were pushing Kashmir towards another major unrest. Mehbooba Mufti expressed her displeasure over the excessive use of force on the part of the CRPF and police to quell the protests. CM Mehbooba went to the volatile Kangan town of Ganderbal district and spent half an hour with the family of slain youth Gowhar Ahmad, who was allegedly killed in police action during the protests.
“Excessive force was used by the police on the protesters and the cop involved would be punished,” Mehbooba told the media while coming out from the house of the aggrieved Kangan family. According to the hospital records of Srinagar, 387 civilians were admitted to different hospitals till Thursday evening after being injured during protests—many of them had firearm and pellet injuries. On Thursday, dozens of students including girls were injured and 11 cops also received injuries due to stone pelting after clashes broke out in Srinagar and other colleges against the Shopian killings. The scale of the protests was so massive that the authorities again closed down all schools and colleges in Kashmir on Friday.