Elderly woman ‘choked to death by tear gas’ in Hajin, police rejects family claims

Hajjin, Dec 05 : An elderly woman died allegedly due to suffocation caused by teargas smoke shelling during the clashes in Hajjin village of north Kashmir’s Bandipora district this evening.
Reports reaching GNS said that during a Cordon and Search Operation, massive clashes were reported in Hajjin village.
The government forces lobbed tear gas shells to disperse angry protesters in the area due to which a 57-year-old woman developed “serious complications.”
However, she was rushed to the local hospital for treatment where the doctors declared her brought dead.
The deceased identified as Hajira Begum wife of Nair Ahmed Dar of Danger Mohalla Hajjin.
The family said that she developed serious complication due to inhaling of the smoke.
Block Medical officer Hajin Dr Tariq told GNS that the woman died of “cardiopulmonary arrest but the exact cause of death would be revealed by postmortem”.
“She was brought to the hospital while she was dead. His family said that while there was teargas shelling, choking was aggravated by teargas smoking shells and exact death would be known by postmortem report,” he said.
Meanwhile, SSP Bandipora Sheikh Zulfikar Azad termed the allegations as baseless and said there was “no such law and order problem”. He said that the woman died due to the heart attack.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Kashmir Monitor staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)