Kashmir: ‘My head hangs in shame,’ says Mehbooba Mufti after Chennai tourist dies in stone pelting
The police said they have begun an investigation and hope to catch the culprits soon.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said on Monday night that she is ashamed that a tourist from Tamil Nadu died after being injured in protests near Srinagar.
The tourist from Chennai, 22-year-old R Thirumani, and his parents were on their way to a resort in Gulmarg when they were caught in stone pelting and protests in Narbal, just outside Srinagar. Thirumani died after suffering a head injury earlier in the day. His mother and another relative were also injured in the attack.
“Some two-three vehicles had come under a bout of stone pelting, in which the tourist from Chennai died,” Director General of Police Shesh Paul Vaid said, according to the Hindustan Times. The police said they have filed a case and have begun investigation. “The culprits will be nabbed soon,” a senior police officer told The Times of India.
“My head hangs in shame,” Mufti was quoted as saying after meeting the family of the deceased. “It is very sad and heartbreaking.”
Opposition National Conference Working President Omar Abdullah wrote on Twitter: “We’ve killed a tourist by throwing stones at the vehicle he was travelling in. Let’s try and wrap our heads around the fact that we stoned a tourist, a guest, to death while we glorify these stone pelters and their methods.”
The former chief minister said he hoped for the recovery of another woman who was injured in the incident. “I’m also pained to know that among the injured from the stone pelting in Narbal is a young woman from Handwara in North Kashmir,” Abdullah said. “I pray she and the others injured make a quick recovery.”
Separatists had on Monday called for a shutdown in the state against the killing of five civilian protestors in South Kashmir.
On May 2, two children were injured when protesters threw stones at their school bus in Shopian district. Their bus had been carrying more than 50 students.