Asks govt to speed up investigation process

Srinagar: Senior PDP leader and Member Parliament Tariq Hamid Karra has asked government to immediately shift the CRPF camp stationed in HMT Watch Factory, Zainakot as its “unnecessary presence” in the area has become an “eyesore” and a “source of irritation” for people.

Visiting the family of a Gowhar Nazir who was killed allegedly by the troops of same CRPF camp on November 7 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally in Srinagar, Karra while condemned the killing said that government should fix responsibility and make forces accountable for the killings of innocent people.

Karra said that the government ordered a magisterial probe on the same day of Gowhar’s killing, “but 10 days have passed since then, no government official has visited the family or the spot of killing to record statements.”

“Instead the additional deputy commissioner has asked the bereaved family to visit his office and record the statement there. Is not this the mockery of the investigation?” Karra said.

He said that eyewitnesses of the killing told him that CRPF troopers who shot Gowhar dead were in civvies and their officer was wearing a “white track-suit”. “This angle needs to be probed,” he said.

Karra said that locals of Zainakot complained that troopers of camp “tease” the locals by passing “unpleasant comments” and by throwing empty wine bottles on roads. “This, they said, irritates them and youth sometimes pelt stones on the camp. In this case it has become a vicious circle, which needs to be stopped. And only way is to shit the camp from there,” he said.

Karra has asked government to hold the concerned officials including deputy commissioner accountable for not initiating the process of investigation into the killing of Gowhar.  (KNS)