Senior police officer lynched to death in Kashmir

By Zahid Rafiq

SRINAGAR, Jammu and Kashmir

A senior police officer has been lynched to death by protestors in the Nowhatta area of Srinagar, the capital of disputed, Indian-held Jammu and Kashmir.

The lynching happened early Friday outside the Jamia masjid (Grand mosque) at around 1 a.m. (1930GMT Thursday) on the night of Layl at ul Qadr.

According to eyewitnesses, the policeman, Deputy Superintendent Mohammad Ayoub Pandith, was in civilian clothing when pro-independence protestors saw him taking their pictures.

His identity was confirmed by S.P. Vaid, Jammu and Kashmir’s chief of police.

"When people asked him to explain what he was doing there, he took out his pistol and fired at people, wounding three," a youth present outside the mosque told Anadolu Agency.

Police later dispersed the crowd by firing into the air and recovered Pandith's battered body lying nearby.

Pandith's killing was the first such lynching in Kashmir, and was condemned by several leaders, including resistance leader and Hurriyat Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who called the killing “un-Islamic.”

Mehbooba Mufti, Jammu and Kashmir’s chief minister, said of the killing: "The Jammu and Kashmir Police are showing maximum restraint when dealing with their own people, but for how long? Someday when they will lose their patience, then it will become very difficult for the people."

Earlier on Thursday Indian forces in south Kashmir killed three militants, charring their dead bodies beyond recognition, and also killed a civilian by shooting him in the neck.

At least 60 civilian protestors were wounded in firing and shelling by Indian forces during clashes.

Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region, is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full. A small sliver of Kashmir is also held by China.

The two countries have fought three wars -- in 1948, 1965 and 1971 -- since partitioning in 1947, two of them over Kashmir.

Kashmiri resistance groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting against Indian rule for independence, or for unification with neighboring Pakistan. More than 70,000 people have reportedly been killed in the conflict since 1989. India maintains more than a half-million troops in the disputed region.