Uri: The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Monday said that they were interrogating a non-local youth captured by the locals on the Saturday night at main town Uri in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
“He seems to be a mentally-challenged person. But we are investigating it,” Station House Officer (SHO) Uri, Tabrez Ahmad told the Free Press Kashmir over phone.
The youth has been identified as Mohammad Saleem, son of Manzoor Ahmad, a resident of Motihari in state of Bihar.
At 11 pm on Saturday, the locals of Uri spotted a non-local youth roaming in the main town.
“He was mistaken as braid chopper and was held, beaten up by them,” said Aijaz Ahmad Bhat, a local in the town adding “Later, he was handed-over to the Uri Police”.
Similarly, at around 10 pm on the same day, some unidentified men barged inside a residential house at Sheikh Mohallah in Bandi area of Uri and tried to ‘sprinkle a spray’ on a woman.
“But her timely hue and cry made those men to run away and she was saved,” said a local of Bandi.
The police was immediately called by locals who rushed to the spot.
Reacting to Bandi’s incident, the SHO Uri said “There have been no incidents of braid chopping in Uri so far. There are most lovers in the area who might have tried to meet each other that created panic among the locals”
However, the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has already asked J&K Police chief Shesh Paul Vaid to speed up investigation while as the separatists blamed “Indian intelligence agencies and security forces” for braid chopping cases.