JOIN USAt a press conference here on Friday, Inspector General of Police (IGP) S M Sahai disclosed the charges being faced by the BBC journalist, refuting allegations she had made on her Facebook account that a trader Afzal Khan was killed by police at Srinagar’s Residency Road some days back. Instead, he said Khan was gunned down by a released militant on a property dispute.
Meanwhile, a senior leader of moderate faction of Hurriyat Conference, Moulana Abbas Hussain Ansari, on Friday strongly condemned the practice of stone pelting by youth and said it was against the basic principles of humanity.
He made the statement a day before the first death anniversary of a teenaged boy, Tufail Ahmad Matoo, who died when a tear gas shell fired by police hit him.
His killing on June 11 last year led to massive protests and subsequent unrest in Kashmir during which 113 persons were killed as police and security forces responded to protest demonstrations and stone pelting.
Police stated that Tufail was killed during stone pelting but his family says that he was returning from the house of his tutor when the tear smoke shell hit him.
Hard-line leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani has called for the Valley wide general strike on Saturday on Tufail’s first death anniversary. Geelani has been placed under house arrest and another separatist leader Shabir Ahmad Shah was also detained.
Tufail’s family and also the families of others, killed during the unrest, are intending to lay the foundation stone of a memorial at a stadium here on Friday in the name of those killed.
Following the call by Geelani and Tufail’s family, the state government may impose restrictions on the movement of people in old city of Srinagar.
Ansari, who was suspended from moderate Hurriyat some time ago for meeting the central interlocutors, during his speech on Friday said stone pelting was neither in the interests of people nor separatists.” We should form a credible strategy,” he said.