Missing of girls from police custody: 5 injured in clashes

expressindia.com

Jul 14, 2010

Jammu Two policemen were among five persons injured when a group of agitators, protesting the missing of two teenage girls from a police station, clashed with the security personnel in Gulabgarh town of Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar district on Wednesday, officials said.

The clash took place when police resorted to lathicharge and teargas shelling to control over 2,000 protesters, mostly youngsters and students, who were marching towards the police station chanting anti-police and anti-government slogans demanding suspension and arrest of SHO Farooq Ahmed Wani.

The agitators also demanded a high-level probe into the incident, the officials said.

The protests were triggered after two teenaged girls, held by police in connection with a sex racket case, allegedly went missing from a police station in Gulabgarh on Monday night. The clashes continued for over two hours and the police also fired a few warning shot in the air to disperse the mob, they said.

In the clashes, five people including two policemen were injured, they said.

As the situation become tense, Divisional Commissioner (Jammu Zone) Pawan Kotwal, Jammu IGP Ashok Gupta and DIG Maneesh Sinha flew to Gulabgarh today and reviewed the law and order situation in the mountain locked town, Kishtwar Deputy Commissioner R Baghat said.

According to police, on July 12 they arrested a 22-year- old boy in a « compromising position » with two girls aged 19 and 17 years. While the boy was booked, police claimed to have released the girls on the same day.

However, the parents of the girls claimed that they did not reach home till this morning. The girls’ sleepers were today recovered from the bank of river Chinab.

~ par Alain Bertho sur 14 juillet 2010.

Publié dans दंगा, émeutes, riots