3 more held for DSP’s lynching

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, June 24

As heads started rolling in the police officer’s lynching, the J&K Police have gone into overdrive and set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the incident.

The police said it had identified 12 persons who were involved in the incident and arrested five of them so far.

“We arrested three more persons in the case. With this, so far five persons have been arrested,” J&K Police chief Shesh Paul Vaid told The Tribune. “The investigation is going on at full speed,” he said.

DSP (Security wing) Mohammed Ayub Pandith, 57, was stripped and lynched outside Jamia Masjid in the Nowhatta area of the old city when people were observing Shab-e-Qadr (night of power) and had gathered for congregational prayers. Witnesses had said the officer was taken as a spy after he pulled out his service revolver and fired at the mob injuring three persons, when they attacked him. The lynching of the officer who also hailed from the old city has triggered an outrage.

On Friday night, Superintendent of Police, North City, Sajad Khaliq Bhat, was shifted and a new SP was posted in the area. Top government sources said there was delayed intervention on the part of the local police when a mob of over 200 people lynched the officer outside the mosque. The Police Control Room, Srinagar, had also received distress calls from Nowhatta informing them that the mob was attacking an unknown person.

Meanwhile, the police have constituted the SIT for speeding up investigation in the case.

The SIT, headed by the SP, North, will examine witnesses and sequence of events to trace the accused. Police sources said many people had recorded the lynching in their mobiles, but so far no video had surfaced on the social media.

In a related development, the family members of Danish Mir, who was injured when Pandith opened fire, claimed that he was arrested from the hospital where he was undergoing treatment.

Guv, CM discuss attacks on policemen

A day after the gruesome killing of a DSP in Srinagar, Governor NN Vohra on Saturday held an emergency meeting with Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to discuss the issues related to the continuing attacks on the police personnel. They discussed the gruesome massacre of DSP Ayub Pandith in the Jamia Masjid area and the steps required to support the families of the martyrs. Based on his earlier discussion with Union Home Minister, the Governor also discussed with CM the urgent steps required to be taken to provide bulletproof vests and vehicles and other protective equipment required to the police officers working in the field. TNS

Mirwaiz sends team to meet cop’s kin

Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who is under house arrest, on Saturday deputed a two-member delegation of his party to offer condolences to the bereaved family of the slain DSP, who was lynched by an unruly mob in the Jamia Mosque area in the Nowhatta early Friday night. A statement from Hurriyat said: “The delegation led by Advocate Yasir Dalal and Muhammad Shafi Khan condoled the sad demise of the slain DSP.” Mirwaiz had earlier tweeted: “It is the most unfortunate incident. I am deeply disturbed by this brutal act. Mob violence and public lynching is outside the parameters of our values and religion.” TNS