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Majid Jahangir
Tribune News Service
Srinagar, March 8
The family of a slain Shopian youth who had completed his masters in physical education from Nagpur allege that their son was killed in “cold blood.”
Two militants and four civilians were killed in a shootout with the Army in Shopian on last Sunday. While the Army claims they fired in “self-defence” when militants opened fire from their vehicles, locals say the four civilians were killed in “cold blood.”
At Mool village in Shopian, people are mourning the death of Gowhar Ahmad Lone, one of the four civilians killed in the incident. After spending eight years outside the Valley, Gowhar had returned home last year and opened a shop for selling pesticides in the apple-rich Shopian. He had completed his masters in physical education from Nagpur.
“For half of the day, he was with me,” says Gowhar’s father Abdul Rashid Lone. “We had gone to Pulwama. When we returned home, he told me that he had to go to Shopian to get pesticides for his shop.”
Gowhar left his home on Sunday afternoon with a promise to return early in the evening. But when he got late, his mother called him but he didn’t respond.
“He knew his mother would be anxious so after around 10 minutes he called back. He said he will return home in half-hour,” says Lone. “But he didn’t.”
The anxious Lone family spent the night hoping against the hope. In the morning, the sad news was broken by neighbours. Gowhar’s body was found inside his car just a few hundred metres from the shootout site.
“His body was found in his car. He was on the steering wheel but there was no blood inside the car. A bullet had pierced his back. There was no bullet mark in the back of his seat. I think, he was killed and then his body was put back in the car,” says Lone.
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