Stone pelter crushed by Paramilitary vehicle: A much needed therapy for them

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Neighborhood residents say the armored vehicle drove wildly into a crowd of anti-India protesters in Kashmir's largest city, slamming into a half-dozen people and crushing one man beneath its wheels, injuring him critically.

Officials say that's nonsense, and that the vehicle was surrounded by a crowd of angry young men, some of whom fell beneath the jeep-like car when they tried to pull the soldiers out and lynch them. "It was a situation created by the crowd. We showed extreme restraint," said Sanjay Sharma, a spokesman for the paramilitary force involved.

A police officer offered a third version. The vehicle, he said, accidentally strayed into an area crowded with protesters, then struck some people when the nervous driver realized what had happened and tried to get quickly away.

"It was a mistake," said the police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to comment.

An AP photographer captured the horror in a series of photographs, though even he couldn't see how everything transpired.

Protesters regularly spill into the streets of Srinagar after Friday prayer services, demanding an end to New Delhi's rule over Indian-controlled Kashmir.

The protests were largely peaceful Friday, with government forces hanging back after the previous week, when over 50 people were injured in fierce clashes.

"Police and soldiers were standing at a safe distance from the crowd, avoiding confrontation. And then from nowhere this vehicle ran into the crowd," said resident Reyaz Ahmed.

But can we really blame the para forces here. There have been numerous instances where stone pelting is done on forces and the police force seems incapable of stopping them. Meanwhile the crowd also doesn't allow the army to continue its  operation of eliminating the terrorism in this area. So when a Van goes for a patrol and a mob comes in trying to break in the van and hurt the officers, what choices do they have left?

The incident was tragic but you can't just expect the forces to not retaliate when provoken