Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar Dec 26: People’s Democratic Party (PDP) MLA Mohammad Ashraf Mir, who created history in the State by defeating an incumbent Chief Minister has stoked a controversy after a video showing him firing from the AK-47 rifle of his security guard to celebrate his victory went viral on social media.
Mir defeated Omar Abdullah from Sonawar assembly seat on December 23 and fired several rounds in air to celebrate his victory when large numbers of his supporters had gathered at his residence.
The video surfaced today and went viral on social networking sites. However, Mir denied having fired any rounds and accused his political rivals of producing a doctored video. “I did not fire any rounds … there was a commotion following my victory and the rifle of one of my PSOs fell on ground which I retrieved and handed it back to him,” Mir said. However, vedio clearly shows him firing in air.
Omar dared the police to register a case against Mir after a video surfaced. “So will J&K police register a case against the gun toting MLA or will they be too scared in case he’s a minister a few days from now?” Omar asked on micro-blogging site Twitter.
“The PDP chap let off an AK 47 to celebrate his victory over me. Thank goodness I didn’t lose Beerwah!!! I wonder what they would have fired!”, Omar said.
National Conference condemned in the strongest of terms the incident and said that such reckless, unlawful behavior from an elected lawmaker was unfortunate and unacceptable, especially in a State that had just recovered from a prolonged phase of armed, violent turmoil.
“How can an MLA resort to firing a gun in broad daylight? Apparently the gun was handed over to Mir by a personal security officer of the J&K Police. This behavior is shocking and violates a slew of laws – most of which are non-bailable offences”, said the statement issued by NC.
The statement accused Mir of misusing his PSOs. The NC Spokesman demanded that the Police takes appropriate action under law against Mir and immediately registers an FIR based on the video evidence under various relevant statutes of law. “In case Mir repeats this behavior and such reckless and unlawful misuse of weapons of the J&K Police results in any loss of life, the J&K Police would be directly responsible” the statement said.
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