Tulail station house officer Naseer Ahmad said a FIR was registered after a cavalcade of the lawmaker was allegedly targeted in Gujran
Srinagar 30 Oct: Nine people were injured when supporters of the National Conference (NC) legislator Nazir Ahmad Khan and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rival Faqeer Khan clashed during the newly elected MLA’s visit to the Tulail area of Bandipora district on Tuesday evening, police said.
Tulail station house officer Naseer Ahmad said a first information report has been registered after a cavalcade of the lawmaker was allegedly targeted in Tulail’s Gujran.
“There were clashes between BJP and NC workers in which some nine persons were injured and some 10 vehicles were damaged including two official vehicles,” Ahmad said. Two of the injured were shifted to Srinagar.
Nazir Ahmad, who won the Gurez constituency of north Kashmir, accused BJP leader Faqeer Khan’s supporters of throwing stones at his motorcade when he was returning from a rally. Nazir Ahmad Khan won the Gurez seat with 8,378 votes, 1,132 more than the runner-up Faqeer Khan’s 7,246 votes.
“I have been visiting different places in the constituency for the past 10 days to thank people for my victory. I visited every village. Yesterday I went to Gujran, which is the village of my opponent. I thanked people and then at the end, we had to go to Checkwali. On our return, the police told us that people had assembled on the road and were not allowing us to move. We were stopped for two hours. Later police took me in a Maruti gypsy on which stones were thrown and there was an attempt to murder me,” he said.
“After we crossed, the vehicles behind us, including my personnel vehicle, were also attacked with stones. Four-five vehicles were damaged and 4-5 people were injured. This is hooliganism. I talked to the SSP and the police have registered an FIR and I hope the culprits will be arrested soon,” he added.
Nazir stressed that the stones were mostly thrown by Faqeer Khan’s relatives
Faqeer Khan’s son and Tulail District Development Council member, Aijaz Ahmad Khan said NC workers provoked the clashes.
“Yesterday at Gujran, first they attacked our home and abused women of our village. That is why the mob resorted to violence from both sides which caused injuries to one of our girls. The clashes went on for some time,” Aijaz said.
Aijaz said the NC lawmaker’s supporters should have raised slogans hailing their leaders, “and those slogans that pain the people of the other party”. “That is why yesterday’s incident happened. I blame Nazir Khan and his party whose people attacked our homes,” he said.
