Fake Encounter at Qamarwari Srinagar 29 November 2010

Srinagar, Nov 29: Four persons including three youth and a policeman were killed while one person sustained injuries during a brief shoot-out in busy Qamarwari Chowk here on Monday afternoon. Following the incident, violent protests rocked ...the area. Father of one of the killed youth, a B.A Ist year student of Degree College Bemina, said his son was innocent.Police claimed that all the three killed youth were motorcycle-borne militants and had come to shoot policemen guarding the Chowk. They also claimed that weapons of crime were recovered from the possession of all the three.The residents of Qamarawari said at around noon they heard sound of one bullet shot in the Chowk.“Instantly a policeman fell down near the Chowk entrance,” a resident told Greater Kashmir. “Within seconds, I heard a volley of bullets ringing in the air. There was traffic jam and huge rush of people here. The gun shots spread panic all around and people including shopkeepers ran out of fear to save their lives. There was complete chaos.”The killed policeman was identified as selection grade constable Muhammad Ashraf Shah having belt no. 1653/S.A shopkeeper, eyewitness to the incident, said he saw a man wearing pheran lying down on the road in a pool of blood.“I don’t know who he was,” the shopkeepers said.Just meters away from the body, was another corpse near a motorcycle which skidded into a drain.“On the right side of motorcycle where the road bends to cement bridge was another body,” an eyewitness said. The residents said they are not sure whether all of them were militants.“I have seen the motorcycle. It was Pulsar bearing number 3503. The man who was riding it had gone to buy meat and was wearing a court and pants,” a resident said. “The police opened indiscriminate fire in the air that time, to create chaos.”Soon after, the residents said they discovered a pakoora seller who had also received a bullet injury. They identified him as Muhammad Maqbool of Panzinara.“His shop is near the site where the policeman was killed. He was injured during the militant shoot out,” a resident said.Meanwhile a senior police official, who was present on the spot, told Greater Kashmir that the militants after shooting the policeman from a close range took away his rifle along with them.“We could not have identified them, but it was the rifle of dead policeman slung on the shoulder of a militant which led to his identification,” he said. “The militant was running towards a motor-bicycle before we shot him dead mid way. Then we shot two more accomplices of him. All of them were wearing pherans.”When asked about retaliation from militants, he said there was none. “We have identified them. And weapons have been recovered. But we can not divulge details.”Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, SM Sahai said the incident happened at 12:35 pm.“We had already laid a naka there. The militants came on a motorcycle. When they were intercepted, they fired on us,” Sahai said.“The remaining police party retaliated and all three militants were shot dead,” IG said. “One police man also laid down his life.”Sahai said they had prior information that some militant movement was taking place in the town. “We had put on checkpoints to catch them. We recovered two pistols and a grenade from their person.”Terming the killings as big success, Sahai said all of them are still unidentified. He also said the three bodies lay scattered since they were being chased by police. “The distance between bodies was just few yards,” he said.Late in the evening, police approached one Bashir Ahmad Peer of Alsafa Colony Sopore with the photograph of one of the killed youth. Bashir immediately identified the photograph as that of his son Peerzada Arshad, a first year student of Govt. Degree College Bemina.Bashir, while talking to Greater Kashmir on phone, said Arshad had left home Sunday afternoon for depositing examination form in the college. “He is innocent, he is not a militant,