Taxi drivers lash out at Army in J&K

New Delhi: Angry taxi operators took to the streets in Srinagar on Wednesday following the killing of a Tata Sumo driver by militants.

The driver was killed when militants ambushed the vehicle carrying soldiers in Pulwama district of south Kashmir on Tuesday evening.

The Tata Sumo drivers, joined by villagers, staged a protest at Shopian town, about 55 km from Srinagar, over the Army's “dictatorial policies” toward them.

They alleged that the Army used to force them to transport soldiers from one place to another for anti-militancy operations, putting their lives at high risk.

They added that the soldiers snatch their taxis at gunpoint and then use the vehicles in anti-militancy operations.

“They put our lives at high risk,” the protestors were quoted by news agency UNI as saying.

Besides the taxi driver, Mukhtar Ahmed, a soldier was also killed when militants fired at the Tata Sumo carrying them at Rakh Litter in Pulwama district.

Another soldier and a civilian, Mohammad Ramzan, sustained serious injuries in the firing.

An Army spokesman the driver of the vehicle was killed on the spot while two soldiers and a civilian were wounded in the firing. He added that one of the soldiers later died in a hospital in Srinagar.

The condition of the other soldier was now stated to be stable.

The spokesman said the vehicle had been hired by the Army and the troops were returning from a counter-insurgency operation when the incident occurred.

The al-Mansoorian militant outfit later claimed the responsibility for the attack.