A 22-year old tourist from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, on Monday succumbed in a Srinagar hospital to critical injuries received during a stone-pelting incident on Srinagar-Gulmarg Road near Narbal in Badgam District of Jammu & Kashmir.
Two members of his family were also injured. The clashes erupted between security forces and protesters who went on the rampage on the outskirts of the city.
R Thirumani, a resident of Chennai, suffered head injuries after being hit by a stone during the conflict yesterday morning, a police official said. A case over the killing of the tourist was registered and investigations have been taken up, the J&K police official said, said reports.
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Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, expressing her grief over the incident, offered her condolences and said, “My head hangs in shame”. After meeting the family members of the victim yesterday the CM said, “It is very sad and heartbreaking”, she was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
R Thirumani, the tourist, was reportedly travelling in a vehicle along with his family in between Srinagar and Kashmir’s premier resort of Gulmarg. The furious stone pelters started attacking their tourist cab and minutes after being severely hit, Thirumani was immediately rushed to a Srinagar hospital where he succumbed to his injuries the yesterday evening.
Thirumani’s body was later brought to the police hospital and Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti went there immediately after she was informed that the tourist had passed away.
The widespread and uncontrolled incidents of stone-pelting in Jammu and Kashmir have become a matter of concern for the state government. Also earlier on May 2, a bus carrying school students of was attacked by stone-pelters in Zawoora village of Shopian district.