J&K: ‘Woman killed by stray bullet was watching encounter from home’

The mother of an 11-month-old daughter, Rubina died before she could be taken to a hospital, her brother Yaqoob Bhat (27) said.

Later, the family said they counted eight bullet holes on the walls and in the cracked window. Yaqoob showed the holes near the window where his younger sister had stood on Tuesday. Outside, a stretcher lay on top of a folding bed in an apple orchard next to Rubina’s home. Rubina was brought home in that stretcher. Her mother, carrying Rubina’s daughter Azra, wailed: “My daughter, why my daughter?”

Yaqoob said Rubina had come home “to take care of our uncle who has been ill for some time”. He said: “She bled out before we reached the main road.”

Villagers poured in to offer condolences and kissed Azra’s forehead. The word “target” was repeatedly heard around the room. “All of us were sitting in that one room. And if all the bullets had entered the house, all of us could have died. We were targeted,” a family member said. They blamed the police for Rubina’s death.

Shopian SP Ambarkar Shriram Dinkar told The Indian Express that eight civilians were injured during the encounter and at least two police officers suffered injuries. He did not mention any civilian death.

Dinkar said the police, in coordination with the Army and the CRPF, acted on specific inputs and cordoned off the village in the jurisdiction of Kellar police station on Monday. “As the cordon was being laid, hiding terrorists fired at the joint search party,” the police said in a statement.

“The encounter started at 5 pm Monday and continued till 12:30 pm Tuesday. Eight civilians received pellet injuries and a lot of policemen were injured in stone throwing by the local people, both during and after the encounter,” Dinkar said.

Officials at the Pulwama district hospital said that other than Rubina, two persons were brought with bullet injuries and they were sent to hospitals in Srinagar for treatment. At least 18 people “with pellet injuries, mostly to their faces and upper body” were also brought, the hospital said. Four houses in the village were damaged.

Two Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists were killed in the encounter. The police identified them as Tanveer Ahmad, a local youth, and Ali Qari, a foreign terrorist. Two AK rifles and ammunition were recovered. Another terrorist, the police said, fled the encounter site “in the dark”.

Protesting recent civilian killings, the Joint Resistance Leadership called for a complete shutdown on Wednesday.