A civilian was killed on Wednesday when the service weapon of a policeman went off accidentally in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.
Asif Ahmad Padroo, 25, was hit by a bullet fired accidentally from the service rifle of a policeman at Haal in Pulwama at around 10 am, police said.
Padroo was rushed to a hospital in Srinagar for treatment where he succumbed to his injuries.
ADGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar said that a case has been registered and the policeman arrested. Further investigation is going on.
Criticising the incident, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti tweeted, “An overcautious & paranoid security apparatus in J&K has snuffed out an innocent life in Pulwama today. The need to prove normalcy overrides the sanctity of lives here. For how long will people of J&K bear a human cost to further GOIs ‘all is well’ agenda”.
National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, describing the incident as “highly condemnable”, tweeted; “There must be a swift, credible & transparent probe into this death. Those responsible must be punished to the fullest extent possible”.
Meanwhile, four terrorists of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) were killed in two separate encounters with security forces in the Kashmir Valley.
Three local terrorists of JeM were killed in an encounter at Drach in south Kashmir’s Shopian. Two of them have been identified as Hanan Bin Yaqoob and Jamshed who were involved in the recent killing of special police officer Javed Dar on 2 October at Pinglana in Pulwama and also a labourer from West Bengal, ADGP said.
A local terrorist of LeT was killed in another encounter at Moolu in Shopian.