SrinagarJammu Kashmir Bank in the second week of this month granted jobs to the widows of two private security guards Javaid Ahmed Bhat and Muzaffar Ahmad, who were killed in May 2017 by unidentified gunmen while manning the cash van in South Kashmirs Kulgam district.
Besides these guards were employees of a private security firm working under an arrangement with bank.
Besides jobs, JK Bank Chairman Parvez Ahmed also gave Cash Certificates worth Rs 4.75 Lakh to each of the four kids of slain guards amounting to Rs 19 Lakh. The sympathetic view taken by Bank was lauded by all and everyone appreciated both the Chief Minister and the Bank authorities for at least helping the victim families in the nick of the time.
However, the Bank has yet to compensate a JK Bank ATM guard who was murdered in cold blood in Srinagar city in august last year.
Para-military CRPF personnel pumped 350 pellets in the body of ATM Guard Riyaz Ahmed Shah (21) on the fateful night of August 2, 2016.
Citing X-ray report victims family said the vital organs-including lungs and kidneys of Riyaz were ruptured by the minuscule metallic pellets.
Shakeel Ahmed, the brother of victim ATM guard, resident of Chattabal Srinagar told news agency CNS that his brother was a security guard at an ATM at Habbakadal area. While leaving for home on that fateful night on a white scooty, he was targeted by Indian Central Reserve Police Force with pellets. It was a time when unrest was at its peak in Kashmir.
People were killed, maimed and blinded by government forces. CRPF troopers fired pellets at my brother after finding him moving on a scooty at deserted road at around 11.pm.
Police registered an FIR (numbered 57/2016) at the Karan Nagar police station against security forces in Riyazs death and investigation is still going on.
We dont want to go into detail. The reality is that Riyaz is no more and he became prey to the pellets fired by CRPF. The irony is that neither the State Government nor the Jammu Kashmir Bank condemned the killing. Leave aside the condemnation, they even didnt express sympathies with the bereaved family, said a relative to this reporter.
We are happy if the Bank provided jobs and cash assistance to the families of two security guards killed in Kulgam attack. May be they were rewarded as the attackers were militants while we were ignored as the killers in our case are from establishment, said Shakeel Ahmed.
Ironically CRPF refuses to accept responsibility in Riyazs death. Do they mean to say that the common man has access to that weapon? We all know militants dont use pellet guns, only Jammu Kashmir Police and the Central Reserve Police Force personnel are in possession of such weapons, he added.
The family is still waiting for the day when Bank will extend helping hand to them. The chances are bleak but hope surmounts despair.
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