Valley youth killed in ‘accidental’ firing: ‘When a convoy passed, he would tell us to stop…let them go first’

“Of all the cousins, he was the most scared of the uniform,” said Rahil, referring to policemen or soldiers along the roads in the Valley.

“If we were going anywhere and a convoy passed, he would ask us to stop by the side and let them go first. He was always respectful…did not want to argue. If he was asked to show his identity card by the police or the Army, he would not get hassled.”

The youngest of three siblings, Asif, a second-year college student, was killed at 9:25 am on Wednesday, barely a few kilometres from his house, in what the police said was “accidental firing” at a checkpoint on the road towards the neighbouring district of Pulwama.

With a single gunshot wound to the head, Asif was later declared dead at a hospital in Srinagar. According to senior police officials, Asif had been hit from a distance of approximately 30 metres. The J&K Police said its constable Mukhtar Ahmad Dar, from whose weapon the bullet was fired, was arrested and booked.

As more villagers poured into his home to offer condolences, Asif’s father, Mohammad Ayoub Padroo, said his son lived a quiet life. “He kept to himself and his books,” he said. Even when Asif was shot, Padroo said, “he was on way to his aunt’s to help them with harvesting apples in their orchard.”

Asif Ayoub

According to the family, at the checkpoint where Asif was shot, “he and his cousin, who were on a bike, were asked to step aside and, just as they were making their way off the bike, he was shot in the back of the head.”

As Asif’s cousin made frantic calls, the Padroo family saw videos of Asif lying in a pool of blood on the road. “I was working in the orchard, I got a call that I should run to the checkpoint at Haal (Pulwama) as they are taking Asif to the hospital,” Padroo said.

Yet to come to terms with his death, Asif’s family wish the “accidental” bullet had not hit him in the head. “Why not the road? Why not some other part of his body so we could have saved him?” Padroo asked.

He, however, did express satisfaction over the police’s “swift action”.

“They have caught the man responsible. They say he fired accidentally and the bullet hit Asif directly in the head,” Padroo said. “At least they gave us the body.”

Political parties in the Valley have demanded a probe, blaming Asif’s killing on what they said was the security paranoia surrounding Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit.

Rahil said that with their relatives living in different parts of South Kashmir, Asif and his cousins would cross the checkpoint where he was killed “several times a day”.

“It was a matter of routine. Sometimes they stop vehicles, sometimes they don’t,” he said.

On Thursday, a day after Asif was killed, vehicles plied per routine and no one was stopped for an identity check.