Pre-dawn on a cold Sunday, Mohammad Shafi Mir stepped out of his house as usual and started walking towards a mosque just meters away from his home in Gantamulla Bala village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Baramulla.
This was his everyday schedule after he retired from the Jammu and Kashmir Police as the Senior Superintendent of Police.
Shafi stepped into the mosque and started giving Azan, the Islamic call for prayer. The microphone was placed near staircases made from wood adjacent to the prayer hall.
As he was calling people for prayer, an unusual sound was heard by the locals, who had just woken up. “Ash-hadu an’ la ilaha ill Allah, (I bear witness that there is no God but Allah), was his last line we heard on loudspeaker,” a local who had woken up told News18.
At first, people thought the sound was from the water tank of the mosque which might have burst given the freezing conditions. “We didn’t know this was gunfire, there was only one shot fired, we heard one sound only,” Iqbal, a local, who took the retired SSP to the hospital along with others.
There was complete silence for a minute after he was shot. The silence was broken with an unusual sound from Mir which echoed in the mountainous village.
“After I heard this, I rushed out. When we saw him on the ground, we thought he had fallen passed out or had a heart attack,” Iqbal said adding that they along with some other locals rushed him to a hospital without knowing he was shot.
Doctors attended him at a local hospital and was initially checked for injury to his head as the glass behind him at the mosque was shattered.
“Doctors didn’t see any injury to his head and on removing his shirt, they noticed six holes on his back and immediately felt these were firearm injuries,” a local who was with the injured said. By the time he had succumbed to his injuries.
This village had heard gunfire for the very first time since the eruption of militancy in 1989. Locals told News18 that in the worst of times, the village remained peaceful and no one picked arms.
Locals and police suspect the use of 12-bore or similar weapons to kill the officer. Pellets have been recovered from the body of the officer which indicates the use of the weapon.
“Many people here have licensed 12-bore guns, some have kept it to keep wild animals away and others just like that,” another elderly said.
Another elderly explained that a person can remake a firearm from a used 12-bore shell. Police were seen taking 12 bore rifles from the houses close to the crime scene, many have gone to the police station with them.
The village is in shock as Mir has dedicated his post-retirement life to the welfare of people, particularly the local mosque.
“The Imam of the mosque takes off every weekend and visits his native house and it appears the attacker knew all this,” said Iqbal adding that attackers suspected he could caught or seen, hence choosing the weekend.
The family of the officer is in shock. Women were seen wailing as the body reached his house. “Why have you left us?” his son screams as the body is being taken to the graveyard.
The body of Mohammad Shafi Mir was kept near a graveyard where hundreds have gathered for his funeral. The local priest recalls his devotion to the mosque as he begins the last rites of the slain.
He served last with the 12th Armed Battalion of the Indian Reserved Police (IRP) and retired in 2013. Mir has also served in his native district and other postings.
While the police are investigating all leads and not ruling out other angles, a terror mouthpiece suspected to be linked to Lashkar has claimed responsibility for the attack.
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