SRINAGAR: Kashmir was seething with anger after an elderly couple was injured when police fired bullets and pellets on them during a midnight raid on their residence in south Kashmir’s Tral area while the curfew, restrictions and shutdown remained in force in the Valley for 43rd consecutive day on Saturday.
A party of J&K police’s Special Operations Group (SOG) conducted midnight raid on the residence of 80-year-old social activist and religious preacher Abdul Qayoom Bhat at Kamla Bachoo village in Tral in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district during the night.
The cops were looking for Bhat’s son Shabir Ahmad Fallahi, an official of politico-religious organisation Jamaat-e-Islami.
“As Shabir was not present in the house, the cops dragged and arrested his elder brother Noor Muhamamad Bhat. They beat him and bundled him into the policy gypsy,” a member of the Bhat family said.
He said when Abdul Qayoom (80) and his wife Nazeera Begum (75) resisted the police action, cops fired pellets and bullets at them.
In the police action, Qayoom sustained pellet injures while his wife was hit by a bullet on her shoulder.
Both the injured were taken to hospital in Tral, where from doctors referred critically injured Qayoom to SMHS hospital in Srinagar for specialized treatment.
“Qayoom has undergone surgery for pellet injuries. He has received pellet injuries close to the heart. His intestines have also been affected by the pellets. The damage is severe as he was hit by pellets from a close range,” said a doctor attending on him in the hospital.
The village has been totally peaceful during the ongoing unrest in the Valley triggered by killing of 21-year-old Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on July 8.