Teachers of religious seminary allege thrashing by army
An army patrolling party from 44 Rashtriya Rifles Saturday allegedly thrashed three teachers at a seminary in South Kashmir’s Shopian district.
The incident occurred at Alyalpora village and the teachers belong to Jamia Zia-ul-Huda. While showing the injury marks to reporters, the teacher alleged that a group of army men entered into their seminary and accused them of hurling rocks on them. “When we refuted the allegations, they targeted us and accused us of imparting ‘Jehadi teachings’ to students. They beat us to pulp with lathis,” said one of the victims.
The victim teachers have been identified as Hafiz Sabzar Ahmad, Hafiz Bilal Ahmad and Hafiz Mohammad Iqbal. The video of the teacher showing grave injury marks went viral shortly after the incident.
When contacted, SSP Shopian Tahir Saleem said that some youth pelted stones on Army patrolling party. “They were caught by Army and handed over to police,” he said and denied that army personnel beat up anyone.
Srinagar based Defense Spokesperson Colonel Rajesh Kalia said that during early morning, a patrol was going in the general area when some students pelted stones on army personnel. “The students who were three in number were handed over to police. No student or teacher was manhandled,” he said.
KV Correspondent
