Srinagar, November 17
The death of an innocent person today morning by the Army in what it said was in a “cross-firing” touched off a protest by people.
The police has registered a case of murder, but the Army said it was chasing a group of militants and Riyaz Ahmed Sofi, a baker, died in the cross-firing. “We had received a tip-off on the presence of militants in the locality and were carrying out a search with the police. In the wee hours we saw some persons roaming around and they fired upon us when we challenged them,” an Army spokesperson said, adding that the victim was one of them.
However, the police verification of Sofi has not found anything incriminating against him and DIG, Anantnag, H.K. Lohia said he was an innocent civilian. “We are verifying claims of the Army and have begun the investigation,” he said.
The public protest went on for hours and subsided only after senior officials assured them of proper probe.
