‘Everyone's Darling’: Merajuddin Shah, The Kashmiri Killed At A Checkpoint

By Dilip -
With most Kashmiris fasting in the month of Ramzan, Shah’s village was sleeping when he left for Kanihama, a nearby village where he operates a Khidmat Centre, a Jammu and Kashmir government facility that provides “government to citizens and business to citizens services” in the hinterlands. The village of Makahama woke up to the news of his death. 

At ten in the morning, Shah was shot by a soldier of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) who was manning a checkpoint at Kawoosa, a village in Budgam. While the CRPF and the Jammu and Kashmir Police say that Shah had jumped two checkpoints at Kawoosa, his family says the car was stationary when he was shot and it was “cold blooded murder.” 

Speaking to HuffPost India, Ghulam Hassan Shah, his uncle and an Assistant Sub-inspector in the J&K Police, who was with him in the car on Wednesday morning, reiterated that Shah had not jumped the checkpoint and he was sitting in the car. “We stopped at the CRPF checkpoint and were allowed to go after I showed my police card. But the moment we were about to leave, a soldier fired at my nephew,” said Shah, who was heading to Srinagar’s Police Control Room. “He died on way to the hospital.”  “I have no idea what forced them to open fire,” he said. 

Ghulam Nabi Shah, Shah’s father and a former government employee, also contested the official version of his son’s death.  “My son was stopped, dragged out of the vehicle and shot dead. I urge the CRPF and the police to please not resort to lies to justify the killing,” said  Ghulam Nabi, who retired from the J&K’s Power Development Department in 2014.  Shah’s elder brother Shabir Ahmad Shah works as a constable in the J&K Police.  Shah’s uncle says he can’t believe his nephew was killed even after he showed the CRPF personnel his identity card....
https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/kashmir-valley-checkpoint-budgam-crpf_in_5ebcf53bc5b63dbb67112df5?utm_hp_ref=in-homepage






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