Youth responsible for attack on policeman found dead

Pattan observes shutdown

Pattan: This north Kashmir town and its adjoining areas observed a complete shutdown on Wednesday after the news about the death of a youth allegedly responsible for attacking a cop with axe and snatching his INSAS rifle spread in the area.

However, police said the said youth lost his life due to his own fault. He tried to fire upon forces but the bullets hit his own abdomen, resulting into his death, the SDPO Pattan Syed Fayaz told a local news agency.

Pertinently, unidentified youth Satruday attacked a policeman with an axe in Pattan market and decamped with his INSAS service rifle. The injured policeman Firdous Ahmad Baba (683IRP) of 16th Battalion is still being treated in SKIMS Srinagar.

Police had registered an FIR vide number 182/2014 under section 307,392, 7/27 Indian Arms Act and the operation to track down the assailant was started in a big way. Police had called scores of persons to police station for questioning while it had under taken search operations in Pattan and adjoining areas from the past few days.

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Police sources said that after receiving inputs about the presence of a few militants in a residential house in Sarai Kreeri area of Pattan, Army party from 29 RR along with SOG Pattan and 176 Battalion CRPF cordoned off the area and zeroed in on the residential house of one, Muhammad Ramzan Mir son of Ghulam Rasool. Government forces did not fire a single shot but they only took positions when they heard a few gun shots. As the government forces searched the house after lull, they found the body of a youth holding the same INSAS rifle that belonged the policeman who was attacked with the axe last week, a police official said.

The official added that initial investigation revealed that the deceased youth had attacked the policeman last week in Pattan market. As the news about the death of the youth spread in the town, people observed a shutdown while shopkeepers downed their shutters.

Many contingents of police and para-military troopers were deployed to thwart possible protests. The slain youth according to locals was a 12 class student. He was my class fellow and we both used to study in Government Higher Secondary School Palhalan. It is beyond my imagination that he is no more, one of his College friends said. Police identified the slain youth as Mudasir Ahmed Sofi son of Abdul Gani of Palhalan Pattan.

Amid pro-freedom slogans the youth was buried in Martyrs graveyard Palhalan. Hundreds of people participated in his last rites while Hurriyat G chairman Syed Ali Geelni addressed the mourners through telephone. In his address Geelani paid tributes to the youth and pledged that the ongoing movement will continue till it is taken to its logical conclusion.

Police stopped mourners to come on main road while, protestors resorted to heavy stone-pelting. Police reportedly used scores of tear-smoke shells to disperse protestors. The clashes between police and protestors continued for hours. Reports said that many people were injured during the clashes.

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