Srinagar, Sept 8: Battling for life in the Intensive Care Unit of SK Institute of Medical Sciences here, Tanveer Hussain Guroo, 27, is worried about the welfare of his hapless family. Tanveer was fired at along with five civilians by Army troopers in Varmul town on Friday. He is the sole breadwinner of his family comprising of two sisters, mother and brother. He used to earn his livelihood by repairing mobiles.

 Recalling the fateful day, Tanveer says the entire town was peaceful due to relaxation in the strike called by Hurriyat Conference.

 “The market was swarmed with shoppers and at 6:00 pm troopers came and brought down a green flag from a mobile tower. This enraged youth and they started raising slogans,” he says.

 “I couldn’t control my emotions and closed down the shutter of my shop and started raising slogans along with other youth who gathered on the spot,” he says.

 “Without giving any warning, I saw troopers pointing guns towards us and rained bullets for five minutes. After bullets hit my legs, I fell on the ground,” he says.

 “Blood was continuously oozing from my legs. Some people picked me up and took me to SKIMS where doctors performed surgery on both legs. Are slogans answered by bullets?” he says as his mother and sister calm him down.

 Another victim of Army firing, 23-year old Muhammed Yaseen Dar lying in bed number 23 at SKIMS Medical College Bemina is in shock.

 He says he was on way to masjid for prayers when troopers fired upon him. “Army men who were being chased by people fired upon me from point blank range and then kicked me. I was not involved in protests or stone pelting and was 200 meters away from the spot. Why did they shoot me?” he asks.

 Like Tanveer, Yaseen too is the lone breadwinner of his family. He says he would usually earn Rs 100-115 every day by working as conductor with mini-bus of a relative.

 “I would finance studies of my three siblings Kulsum, Bismah and Mudasir by this meager amount,” he says. 

 The families accuse troopers of threatening them of dire consequences if they dared to register FIR against them. “The troops visited the families of injured and summoned elders to their camp and warned them of serious ramifications if any complaint was lodged against them,” they said.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 8 Sep 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 8 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 9 Sep 2010 00:00:00 IST