Civilians walked into death trap

Azhar Qadri

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, October 21

The six civilians, who were killed in an accidental explosion in south Kashmir’s Kulgam, had walked into a death trap as the site of Sunday’s gunfight was unsanitised and deadly munition lay inside the house, where the militants were holed up during the gunfight.

The civilians were killed at the site, where three local militants were gunned down this morning after several hours of firefight with security forces. During the encounter, protesters from villages had surrounded the site.

The gunfight ended at 9.30 am with the killing of the militants, Kulgam SSP Harmeet Singh said. The house in which the three were holed up caught fire.

“It was difficult to maintain the cordon because of stone-throwing and it was not feasible to sanitise the house because it was on fire,” the police officer told The Tribune.

He said the police made announcements before removing the cordon around the site of gunfight and warned people not to come near.

A group of civilians, however, went into the house following which munition exploded in which “eight or nine civilians were injured”. Three died immediately and three others succumbed to injuries later. This took the toll of civilians to six — making it one of the bloodiest day of the year in the region.

In recent years, the security forces have frequently faced a two-pronged battle at the gunfight sites as they confront militants and also face stiff stone-throwing from hostile crowds of militant supporters — whose number sometimes swells into thousands.

At many instances, security forces have to call off the cordon and search operations against militants after facing aggressive stone-throwing.

While the civilian casualties around the sites of gunfight have been frequent this year as many protesters have been killed while attempting to help the militants holed up, the incident and toll in Kulgam is rare.

The police have previously issued multiple advisories asking the local residents not to go near the sites of gunfights.

In the aftermath of the Kulgam incident, Adviser to Governor K Vijay Kumar and state police chief Dilbag Singh issued a joint statement in which they regretted the loss of civilian lives. “Such sites should be avoided till properly sanitised,” they said.

The high toll, however, has sparked anger in the region and while separatist groups called for a shutdown in the region, two former Chief Ministers also warned that the situation was becoming volatile.

Mehbooba Mufti of the PDP said the incident had added “fuel to the already volatile situation”, while Omar Abdullah of the NC said, “alienating the people in the fight against militancy is a sure fire recipe for losing the fight”.

Separatists call for Valley shutdown

Separatists called for a shutdown across the Kashmir valley on Monday to protest the killing of civilians and militants during a gunfight and a subsequent accidental blast in Kulgam district. The shutdown has been called by Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik, the three separatist leaders who refer themselves as the joint resistance leadership. The Kashmiri Pandits Sangharsh Samiti, a group of non-migrant Kashmiri Pandits, also extended support to the shutdown.