Ghulam Hassan Malla was killed in custody after he was picked up by the Army’s 62 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) from his native Chottipora village of Shopian on Friday.

After massive protests by the people in Shopian, police registered a case of murder against the Army unit. Shopian was placed under curfew keeping in view the anger of the people. Police had also certified that Hassan was innocent.

“This is a case of custodial killing,” Superintendent of Police (SP)Shopian, Javid Iqbal Mattoo told The Indian Express. In a road show in Shopian on Tuesday, Mehbooba Mufti addressed people and condemned the act, terming it as most unfortunate and said that these barbaric acts could not be tolerated in a democratic setup.

“We demand a speedy judicial probe into the incident as such highhandedness cannot be tolerated in a civilised society and recurrence of such reprehensible acts demand concrete measures to salvage the shattered public confidence,” said Mehbooba.

Linking the incident with the heavy presence of troops in the area, Mufti said that occurrences like these show that troop reduction should be done. “These incidents vindicate our stand of troop reduction from civilian areas. The presence of Army in civilian areas, where the situation has changed to normal, does not only become a source of irritation for the masses, but gives birth to such acts of human rights violations as well,” said Mufti. Mehbooba expressed her solidarity with the bereaved family and also demanded immediate relief and benefits under SRO-43 for the family.

The PDP president, who later visited many areas, said that her priority will be a holistic development of the area.