Demonstrations held in IIOJK against killing of two Kashmiris by Indian Army

SARINAGAR: Hundreds of protesters have blocked a section of a main highway that runs through Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) over the killing of two Kashmiris who worked as labourers at an Indian Army Base, officials and residents said.

Residents said the men were shot dead earlier on Friday by Army Guards at the entrance of the base in Rajouri district, 150km (95 miles) south of the occupied region’s main city of Srinagar. Protesters burned tyres and pelted the military base with stones hours after the shooting, said a police official, who declined to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

A resident of Phayalana village in Rajouri told reporters the two slain civilians lived in the same village. He alleged they were “killed by the army without any reason”. “They were going for their routine work towards the army camp when the guard opened fire at them. They worked as labourers inside the camp for more than a decade. The third person with them was wounded,” he said on condition of anonymity.

“These people were poor labourers who have small children – one of them has three kids while the other has two. Their families are devastated.” The army in a statement blamed “unidentified terrorists” for opening fire. Garu Saneha, a politician in Rajouri with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said residents were not ready to accept the army’s claim.

“The army is saying these people were killed by militants but I want to ask them that if their argument is true, why didn’t they launch a search and cordon operation? They are lying. They [the army] did not come out of the camp the whole day,” he told media.

“We have demanded jobs and monetary help to the families and the administration has agreed,” he said. Former Chief Minister of IIOJK, Mehbooba Mufti, has demanded an impartial investigation into the incident. Regional police have promised a fair probe.