Police on Sunday arrested three persons and booked them for attempt to murder in connection with an attack on Kashmir bound truck driver last evening.According to Srinagar based news gathering agency, GNS that a Kashmir bound oil tanker (JK01W-7638) driver Farooq Ahmad of Keegam, Shopian was injured after a group of goons attacked him near Nandini on Srinagar-Jammu highway on Saturday night.Shouting anti-Kashmiri slogans, the group beat up the driver to pulp before they left the spot, leaving Farooq in injured condition on the highway, reports had said.“The timely intervention of police and paramilitary CRPF men had saved the life of trucker and the oil tanker vehicle as they tried to set it ablaze.”Acting swiftly, SHO Jajjer Kotli told GNS that they have identified five attackers. “Out of them three have been arrested today in the morning and a vehicle bearing registration number JK02A-J0070 was also seized,” he said.SHO identified the three arrested accused as Sanjeev Kumar, Sumit Kumar and Rajender Singh, all residents of Katra. “All were booked under section 307 RPC (Attempt to murder),” he said.
When asked why the trucker was attacked, the SHO said they were travelling in two vehicles and all of them were drunk. “They tried to overtake from the oil tanker (vehicle) and in the meantime, the drunken men caught hold of the driver and thrashed him.Earlier, the police had filed the case under FIR No. 134/2015 under RPC sections of 341 (wrongful restraint) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt).The other two accused were at large and the vehicle found at the time of attack without the number plate has also been identified as JK020-6199 (Swift Desire), the SHO said.SHO said that the driver of the oil tanker has been immediately hospitalized and is stable.
The incident comes little over a month after one of the two persons injured in the attack on a valley-bound truck in Udhampur on October 9-10 night died in the Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital nearly after a week, provoking massive protests in valley and strong reaction from the Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who blamed the death on “politics of hate and intolerance” and said it was posing a “grave challenge” to the nation.Zahid Ahmad Bhat, 20, who also belonged south Kashmir, although different district (Anantnag) had been brought to the hospital on October 11 with more than 70 per cent burn injuries. (GNS)