Hundreds attend youth's funeral in Kashmir

Hundreds on Wednesday joined the funeral procession of Rayees Ahmad Ganai, who died in a hospital here after suffering a gunshot injury in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district on Saturday.

Hundreds of mourners gathered at Narpora, the ancestral village of Rayees where he was buried amid pro-Islam and pro-Azadi slogans.

As mourners kept pouring into the village from different parts of south Kashmir, where Shopian district is located, four rounds of funeral prayers were offered for the youth.

Security forces kept away from the funeral march.

Sources in the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) here said that Rayees, a 19-year-old who had been admitted on Saturday, succumbed to gunshot injuries on Wednesday morning.

His body was handed over to the family.

With his death, the number of civilians who died in firing by security forces in Ganowpora village of Shopian district has risen to three.

Javaid Ahmad and Suhail Ahmad were killed in Army firing when a stone-pelting mob attacked an administrative convoy of 10 Garhwal unit on Saturday.

The police have registered an FIR against the soldiers of the unit, charging them with murder.

In response, on Sunday, the Army filed a counter FIR against unknown persons, stating that it opened fire in self-defence and that the police should identify the stone-pelters.

The Army has maintaining that its personnel had fired after a junior officer fell unconscious following the mob attack.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has demanded the withdrawal of the FIR against the Army while Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said the investigation into the killings of the civilians would be taken to its logical conclusion.

A magisterial probe has also been ordered by the state government.

The separatist conglomerate, the Joint Resistance Leadership headed by Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik, has called for a protest march to Shopian on Friday to express solidarity with the families of the three killed youths.

Malik made this announcement on Wednesday in old city Nowhatta area of Srinagar while leading a protest march against the civilian deaths.

Geelani and Mirwaiz have been placed under house arrest in Srinagar.

--IANS

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