Anger is brewing among the Gujjars in Jammu after a family accused the police of framing their son as a drug addict and killing him in a staged gunfight, prompting the administration to launch a probe.
Mohammad Parvez, a 21-year-old resident of Nikki Tawi in Jammu, was allegedly injured during an exchange of gunfire between the police and “suspected drug peddlers” on Thursday night.
Parvez was shifted to Jammu Medical College where he was declared dead.
Relatives erupted in protest outside the hospital late in the night and accused the police of killing Parvez in cold blood after falsely labelling him as a drug addict.
The police have, in recent years, woven a new narrative around “narco-terrorism” to intensify their crackdown on militants and drug addicts. The police claim that Pakistan is trafficking drugs to fund militancy in Jammu
and Kashmir, but there is growing concern that the campaign is being used to hound ordinary citizens.
The Supreme Court on July 21 ordered a CBI probe into the allegation of custodial torture of constable Khursheed Ahmad Chohan in Kupwara in connection with a narcotics probe. The constable’s private parts were allegedly mutilated, prompting the apex court to direct the immediate arrest of the accused police officers and the payment of compensation to the victim.
Parvez’s family rejected the charge that he was a drug peddler. They said he and his brother-in-law had gone to the market to fetch medicines.