Shopian firing turns into political row in J&K

During the firing by thearmy in Shopian of Jammu and Kashmir, there is a new turning point in the case. Whereas 10 Garhwal rifle major and his unit have been made accused in the FIR lodged by the Jammu and Kashmir Police, the army has also has lodged his complaint with police.

Srinagar-based Army PRO said: "We had forwarded our complaint to the police in Shopian incident and is based on the same statement that army had issued that very day. It has been mentioned in DAK PAD of police, now its to police how they name it."

However, the army has not named any attacker but has mentioned the injuries to soldiers and damage to vehicles in the complaint.

The Army had issued a statement afterthe incident saying that"On Jan 27th, 2018 at about 15:00 hours, an army administrative convoy was passing through Ganaupura chowk in Shopian when it came under unprovoked and intense stone pelting by a group of 100-120 stone pelters. Within no time, their numbers swelled to 200-250 persons. The crowd surrounded an isolated portion of the convoy consisting of four vehicles. They caused extensive damage to these vehicles and tried to set them on fire."

"A junior commissioned officer accompanying the convoy got hit on the head and fell unconscious suffering serious injury. The mob tried to lynch the individual and snatch his weapon. The violent crowd further closed in towards the vehicles and attempted to set them on fire. Considering the extreme gravity of the situation the army was constrained to open fire in self-defence to prevent lynching of the JCO and burning of Government vehicle by the mob. A total of seven army men suffered injuries and extensive damage was caused to eleven vehicles. In the process two civilians succumbed to the bullet injuries," the statement added.

Now, the army and state police areface to face after the police lodged an FIR under section 336,307,302 RPC against the army unit naming army major and his unit. Thearmy had lodged a counter FIR defending itself.

Theincident hasturned into a political row now after state chief ministerMehbooba Mufti Sayeed said that the magisterial probe in the case will be taken to the logical conclusion.

The CM told the state assembly that the government had filed the FIR only after consulting defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

"She told me that I should take action if any carelessness or anything wrong has happened," she said.

On the hand, the state government and its collation partners are not on thesame page over the Shopian firing.

BJP is of the view that FIR against the army should be withdrawn as it woulddemoralise the army, however, they are condemning the incident, but the other partner PDP is of opinion that investigation should go as per law and police will investigate the case.

Meanwhile, the state main opposition party National Conference said its an "eyewash"when the two parties which are running the government in thestate are not of thesame opinion.