1 dies after jeep runs over 2 during Srinagar protests, CRPF says driver was trying to avoid being lynched

One youth was killed and another was injured post being driven over by a CRPF vehicle that came under attack from a group of stone-pelters near in Srinagar on Friday, at the Jamia Masjid.

Kaiser Ahmad and Yonis Ahmad were hit by the CRPF vehicle and they were admitted to the hospital where doctors announced their condition as serious. Kaiser, who was said to be “very critical” and “on life support”, passed away at the period midnight.

After Friday prayers at the mosque, scores of protesters shouting anti-India slogans and they have clashed with police. They surrounded a CRPF vehicle and pelted stones at it also.

Sanjay Sharma, the CRPF PRO, said the vehicle was carrying second-in-command of 28 Battalion, SS Yadav stated further.

“They (protesters) came very close, some of them even climbed on the vehicle. The protesters were trying to lynch people inside the vehicle and the driver was trying to get out of the situation,” he said.

Sharma said that, at the same time, as trying to get out of the situation, somebody “might have come under the vehicle”.

Images and a video of the incident have gone viral on social media.

Omar Abdullah, the Former state chief minister, took to his official page of the micro-blogging site and condemn the incident.

“Earlier they tied people to the fronts of jeeps & paraded them around villages to deter protestors. Now they just drive their jeeps right over protestors. Is this your new SOP @MehboobaMufti sahiba? Ceasefire means no guns, so use jeeps?” he tweeted along with a picture of youth crushed under CRPF vehicle.

Sharma, the CRPF PRO, said their personnel “didn’t fire a single bullet or a pellet despite the grave situation”.

Last week, after Friday prayers, the police used pellets to quell protesters and also open the tear gas which landed inside the mosque. More than 20 people were injured because of this incident.

Later, the Auquaf Committee and Traders Federation of Jamia reached an agreement with the police were said there will be no security deployment in the mosque and volunteers will look post the security and discourage stone pelting post the prayer ceremony.

Though in spite of the agreement, protests took place outside the Jamia Masjid and its neighboring areas post the completion of the prayer ceremony on Friday.