Srinagar, Mar 16: Khursheed Ahmad had gone to meet his parents putting up at Budgam in central Kashmir on Monday, and arrived late at the shop here on Tuesday morning.
While he was opening the shop, gunshots set everyone running for cover but his “foot got stuck in something” and a bullet hit him in the lower back, leading to his death.
The 25-year old Khursheed, a matriculate, had been working as a salesman at a hosiery shop, Beauty Selection, in Koker Bazar for the past 10 years. He had been staying with his employer at Hyderpora. Yesterday he had left the shop early to see his parents but it turned out to be his last visit home.
“Khursheed returned from his home this morning and arrived at his workplace late to open the shop as I am paralytic and I can’t do it on my own. When we heard the gunshots we went inside the shop for cover and Khursheed too started running. But his foot got stuck in something and when the firing stopped and we went to see him, he had received a bullet in the lower back,” Khursheed’s employer, Noor Muhammad, told Greater Kashmir.
Noor Muhammad was among dozens of people waiting outside the emergency operation theatre at SMHS,
where Khursheed was being operated.
Khursheed was the eldest son of the family of four comprising his parents and younger brother, who is working at a petrol station. His family, relatives and fellow businessmen had come to the hospital to see him, not knowing that he won’t come out of the operation theatre alive.
“We are told that his pancreas is ruptured,” Khursheed’s young cousin, Zahoor Ahmad, said.
Among those waiting outside were his wailing father and brother who were moving around restlessly. On seeing others talking to media they came closer.
His father, Abdul Rahim, said: “Khursheed came home yesterday and left early in the morning. But we didn’t know we will have to hear this news barely a few hours after he left.”
He broke down and others around him tried to console him. Khursheed’s younger brother was also standing nearby but couldn’t help his father as he himself was inconsolable.
During the course of the surgery they kept waiting outside, hoping to get good news from the surgeons. But it didn’t happen. Khursheed died in the operation theatre.
WHAT HAPPENED AT KOKER BAZAR
“We were returning from a patrol. Our three men (two of whom got injured) were moving ahead of us. Two men in early 20s, one carrying AK-47 and another carrying a pistol, appeared in the internal lane and started firing at the trio moving ahead of us. Two of our men fell down on the spot and one started running away. We too started running towards our camp,” said constable Arun Naik of 132 batallion CRPF who was guarding his injured colleague in causality ward of SMHS.
“Three was too much crowd around and after hearing the gun shots everyone started running. And in that the militants also fled. They were in civvies, not donning Pherans,” the constable added.
Locals, however, said the CRPF also opened fire, though not sure how the civilians got injured.
 “After a few gun shots initially, I saw CRPF men running towards the bunker in Palladium and they were firing bullets. We saw them firing but we didn’t see whose bullets hit the civilians,” said Riyaz Ahmad a Shopkeeper in Koker Bazar.
“We came out only after police arrived and the firing had stopped. We saw two salesmen, Khursheed Ahmad, Mehraj Ahmad Wani, and a young shopkeeper, Mehraj-u-Din Shah, had received bullets,” he added.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:00:00 IST