The police on Friday told the State Human Rights Commission that a Pulwama man killed in September this year was “hit by a stray bullet fired by forces in self defence” during protests in the area.
A civilian Fayaz Ahmed Wani was shot dead in his native Gusoo village on September 3.
The reply came after SHRC directed police to file its response, following a complaint by rights activist Ahsan Untoo to conduct an investigation into the case.
In its reply, police has stated: “On 3.9.2018 police station Pulwama received a reliable information to the effect that during CASO at village Gusoo, Chewa Kallan etc. by SFs (security forces) miscreants pelted heavily upon the deployed SFs with the intention to kill them, while as SFs in self defence resorted to tear smoke shelling and fired few rounds in air. During the course of investigation it surfaced out that the deceased…had taken his cow for grazing to a nearby field situated on a higher landscape, where he received a stray bullet in his face fired by the SFs in air for self defence and was taken by the locals to SMHS hospital Srinagar for specialised treatment where doctors declared him brought dead (sic).”
It adds: “It surfaced that the deceased was a layman who was not affiliated with any political/non political organization as per the records of police station Pulwama. The investigation of the case is going on.”