Jammu and Kashmir: Sopore family accuses Army of assaulting females
The Army has denied the charge.
Srinagar: The police in Jammu and Kashmir’s Sopore is investigating alleged assault on a family including four females by a group of soldiers while conducting a ‘survey’ of the area. The Army has denied the charge.
The family which held a protest here on Tuesday alleged that an Army Major and his men from a 22 Rashtriya Rifles camp in Sopore’s Bomai area not only misbehaved with it but also thrashed four female members including a medical student.
“While conducting some survey the soldiers led by a Major misbehaved with my brother when he objected to their snatching his cell phone. I asked the officer to stop harassing us but he slapped me and then dragged me by my hair,” said Naziya Fayaz. She also alleged that while she was being beaten up by the officer, his men dragged other female members out of the house and then they too were “beaten to pulp.”
During the protest held in Srinagar’s Mushtaq Press Enclave, Naziya showed her swollen eye to reporters. Other female members of the family who identified themselves as Naseema Banoo and her two daughters Rameesa and Kounsar also accused the soldiers of assaulting them “merely because we had objected to their delinquency.”
The head of the family Fayaz Ahmed said, “The irony is that Army Major locked the front gate of our house and treated the female folk like cattle.”
SHO Bomai Abdul Majeed told local news agency CNS that an FIR vide number 37/2017 has been registered and investigations taken up into the alleged incident. Defence spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia denied the charges and said that the Army “neither misbehaved nor manhandled anyone”