Another cricketer brought home dead-‘Teenage Zahid Shot In Chest’

Posted Sat, 02/06/2010 - 16:24

GOWHAR BHAT-Srinagar, Feb 5: In one more incident of its kind in less than a week, another young boy who had gone to play cricket near his residence at Nishat on Friday, was bought home dead.

16-year-old, Zahid Farooq alias Shoaib of Sheikh Mohalla, Brain, Nishat, according to his friends - also eyewitness to the incident - said they offered Friday prayers in the nearby mosque and then went out to play cricket in a field on the banks of Dal Lake.
“But it started raining heavily and we sat on a parapet beneath a tree. In the meanwhile, a BSF gypsy and a lorry passing by the Boulevard Road stopped near us. The BSF troopers got down from the vehicle and came towards us. They asked us to go home as curfew was in force in the city,” Zahid’s friends, staging protests, said.
 “The BSF men abused and chased us away. We started running but Zahid stayed back.  Suddenly, we heard gunshots and when we looked back, we saw a BSF trooper firing at Zahid. The trooper fired three shots at him from point blank range,” said his friend with fear writ on his face.
 Zahid received a bullet in his chest and he crawled several meters with blood gushing out of his body, before he fell flat on the ground. “We offered him water and in a few minutes he breathed his last,” he stammered. Zahid was shifted to SKIMS where he was declared dead on arrival.
 Zahid was the only son of his parents who are now left with two daughters. His father, Farooq Ahmad Sheikh, is a government employee in the Public Health Engineering Department. He was a student of Meerak Shah School, Shalimar and had passed his matriculation examination in December last year.
 “Zahid was such a loveable child and was everybody’s darling. My mind fails to fathom why he was killed and for what. There were neither any protests nor any clashes in the area,” said Javaid Ahmad, his neighbour and friend. “This is a cold-blooded murder,” he grumbled.
 When Zahid’s body was bought home, many of his friends and neighbours, unable to bear the grief, fell unconscious. Zahid was a cricket freak and despite the rains he went out to play cricket. “Get up Shoaib, Get up, we have to play,” his friends shrieked as they followed the ambulance carrying home his body.
 Relatives, neighbours and locals staged massive demonstrations amidst heavy rains and took his body on the Boulevard and tried to march towards CM’s residence. But a large number of police and CRPF men blocked the roads by armoured vehicles and lobbed teargas canisters to quell the funeral procession.
 A youth came out of the ambulance with the hospital admission ticket in his hand and went to SSP, Srinagar, Javaid Riyaz Bedar: “Please have mercy on us. Look at this ticket; Zahid was killed by targeted fire, a bullet pierced his chest. Please stop shelling on this procession.”
 Earlier this week, another teenager, Wamiq Farooq who had also gone to play cricket in the old city was bought home dead. He was hit by a teargas shell in his head when police were dealing with protesters near Gojwara. GK SRG