Crime

Two ‘Kashmiris’ allege they were ‘almost lynched, called terrorists’ in Shimla, cops say ‘it was a scuffle’

‘They called us Kashmiri terrorists and abused all Kashmiris, could have killed us in minutes’

The cops said individuals belonging to Poonch and Rajouri and had gotten into a scuffle 

Srinagar: A message with photographs of injured Kashmiris is making rounds on social media reading that they were (attempted to be) lynched by a group of people during their trip in Kurfi, Shimla on January 10. The police however have refuted the allegations calling it a “scuffle between people arguing with each other.”

While the social media reports read that the Kashmiris Zaffar Iqbal and Arshad Khan belong to the Poonch and Rajouri districts of Jammu and Kashmir, respectively, were called ‘terrorists’.

“They called us Kashmiri terrorists and abused all Kashmiris,” reports quote them as saying. “They could have killed us in minutes. We were lucky that we escaped,” they said.

They were injured and have now been discharged from the hospital.

The Investigating Officer, Dharam Singh told Free Press Kashmir that it was not at all a case of attempted lynching.

“It’s not at all a case of lynching. Social media is not a credible source. Basically, there were three boys who happened to be Kashmiris. They had come on a vacation to Shimla,” he says.

They had bought tickets for horse riding. Their Serial No. was 42, briefs Singh. “The horse rider they had approached already had a group of 46 persons set for riding. Some among them were yet to ride the horses. That was the confusion. They had thought the service provider was letting other people ride first, which was not the case,” says Singh adding that the argument had led to a scuffle.

The Kashmiris, according to Singh had taken it personally and had said, “You are making a fool out of us. You think we have come from outside.”

They had gotten injured and those who had tried to intervene were also manhandled by them, informs Singh.

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