Ex-sarpanch had fled with rifle: Cops

Suhail A Shah

Anantnag, December 2

The police today said the former Congress sarpanch killed yesterday in Army firing was a released militant who had decamped with a rifle from the Dooru police station in Anantnag district. He used it to fire at an Army patrolling party.

State Congress chief Ghulam Ahmad Mir yesterday termed killing of Sajad Ahmad Malik as a “custodial murder” and demanded a judicial inquiry into it.

Malik was killed by the Army in Aagnoo village of Dooru yesterday. Later, the Army maintained that he was killed during an encounter and a weapon was recovered from him.

Though the police had initially remained tightlipped about the incident, it issued a press release today, saying, “the accused had decamped with an AK-47 rifle from the Dooru police station.”

The release further said Malik fired some shots in the market and then escaped towards Zamalgam village. “On the way near Cherikari he fired at the Army patrol. The fire was retaliated and Malik was killed,” the press release said.

However, the police statement was mum on several aspects such as Malik’s detention at the police station for the past one and a half months and how he fled with a rifle from there. It was also silent on his stint as a Congress village head.

Malik’s family has termed it as a politically motivated killing.

“He was under detention for one and a half months and despite getting bail from the court 15 days ago we could not secure his release,” said Shaheena Akhter, wife of Malik.

Shaheena said she met him on Thursday evening at the police station and less than half an hour later he was killed.

“I don’t know how they killed him,” Akhter said, “It looks like a politically motivated killing,” she said.

Meanwhile, Kulgam MLA and state secretary of Communist Party of India (Marxist) has also demanded a judicial probe into Malik’s killing.

Mir not allowed to visit Dooru: Congress

Srinagar: The Congress on Friday said Pradesh Congress Committee president GA Mir was not allowed to visit his home constituency Dooru in south Kashmir following Thursday’s killing of a former party sarpanch. A Congress statement issued in Srinagar said Mir’s movement was restricted by the government on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway. Mir said the government must come clean on the “murder” of Sajad Ahmad Malik who as per the police had decamped with an AK rifle along with one magazine from Dooru police station and was killed in retaliatory firing. Reacting to the police version, Mir said: “Police version with regard to this killing is not satisfactory, as there are different versions coming from the police since Thursday evening.” He said the incident should be probed by a sitting High Court judge. TNS

NC demands judicial probe 

Srinagar: The National Conference party on Friday demanded a judicial probe into the killing of former sarpanch Sajad Ahmad Malik. Party leaders Sakina Itoo and Farooq Ahmad Ganai said the version about the killing of Malik was “full of contradictions and conjectures”. “Justice should be upheld at all costs,” Itoo and Ganai said in a joint statement, terming Malik’s killing as “highly suspicious”. “We demand a transparent, time-bound judicial probe into the incident and seek a direct answer from the Chief Minister. When mainstream political activists and former sarpanches can be killed while in the custody of the police, the Chief Minister should acknowledge the grave costs of her government’s callousness and irresponsibility in dealing with the deteriorating situation in Kashmir,” the NC leader said in the statement. TNS