The youth who was killed in an Army encounter on Tuesday on suspicion of being a militant was a civilian, Rising Kashmir reported on Wednesday. The man, identified as 21-year-old Shadab Bashir Mir, was shot dead in Jammu and Kashmir’s Handwara district.

“How he was there and with whom is subject to investigation, but there is no doubt that he is a civilian,” Inspector General of Police Munir Ahmad Khan told Rising Kashmir. “He must have been killed in the crossfire or something.”

Mir, a Handwara resident, is believed to have been a student at the Government Degree College. Khan claimed that Mir had gone missing from his house a couple of days ago, though the Army’s FIR did not mention him as a militant.

Residents protest Mir’s death

Schools and colleges were shut on Thursday following protests by residents triggered by his death, The Indian Express reported. The protest turned violent when they torched a vehicle and damaged two other cars of the Kupwara district administration. However, the police hurled teargas canisters to disperse the crowd.

The agitators demanded that an FIR be filed against the Army officials involved in the incident. The protesters said they will keep Mir’s body at a chowk till the complaint is lodged. “We are ascertained about the troops involved in the incident... FIR will be lodged against them,” Kupwara Deputy Commissioner Khalid Jehangir told Greater Kashmir.