The government of Pakistan administered Kashmir on Thursday constituted a single member judicial commission to probe the circumstances that had led to the firing at a rally on Friday last, causing the death of a Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) activist.
“The government has been informed that on March 16, the JKLF had given a call for a long march from Tattapani (Kotli) to Madarpur (Poonch) and some 1500 activists made an attempt to reach Madarpur. At Sehar Kakuta Bridge, the administration and police lobbed tear gas shells and baton charged [the marchers] to disperse them. Both sides resorted to aerial firing, during which Naeem Butt, son of Muhammad Sharif, resident of Chota Galla (Poonch) sustained wounds and died after four days at a hospital,” reads a notification issued by the service and general administration department.
Continuing, it said: “(Since) the relatives staged a protest (on Thursday) by placing his coffin on the road, demanding judicial inquiry, the prime minister has appointed Justice Muhammad Shiraz Kiani of PaK High Court as commission of inquiry for an impartial probe within 30 days in view of the sensitivity of the matter.”
It may be recalled that on Friday last thousands of people had joined the march on the call of JKLF to “express solidarity with the people suffering from cross-LoC shelling.”
However, the administration of Poonch had stopped them at Sehar Kakuta.
Butt was injured in the ensuing clash between the two sides, after a bullet broke the skin of his chest and pierced through his right shoulder, severing his veins and arteries.
He was shifted to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Islamabad the same evening, where he breathed his last at 7pm on Wednesday.
His coffin, draped in the JKLF flag, was brought to Rawalakot on Thursday morning, where complete shutter down was observed by traders.
While the postmortem was conducted in Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahayan Hospital Rawalakot, the mourners sat outside the hospital to press for their demand for constitution of a judicial commission, comprising either by Chief Justice M Tabassum Aftab Alvi or Justice Muhammad Shiraz Kiani.
At 5pm thousands of people offered funerals of the deceased at Sabir Shaheed Stadium Rawalakot, but the body was removed for Chota Galla at about 7pm, only after the government issued the notification regarding constitution of judicial commission.