India's Transition from Democracy to Mobocracy Seems Complete, Says Mehbooba Mufti on Jamia Shooting

Srinagar: The shooting incident at Jamia Millia Islamia University seems to have completed India's transition from democracy to mobocracy, a tweet on PDP president Mehbooba Mufti's Twitter handle said on Thursday.

A man fired a pistol at a group of anti-CAA protesters in the university on Thursday, injuring a student, before calmly walking away while waving the firearm above his head and shouting "Yeh lo aazadi" amid heavy police presence in the area.

The man, who identified himself as "Rambhakt Gopal", was subsequently overpowered by police and detained. He was taken into custody and was being interrogated, police said.

"As we remember Gandhiji on the sombre occasion of his death anniversary, India's transition from democracy to a mobocracy seems complete," a tweet on Mehbooba's Twitter handle read.

Mehbooba's daughter Iltija Mufti has been operating her mother's Twitter handle since August 5 last year following detention of the former chief minister in the wake of abrogation of article 370 provisions.

"Interesting that certain media channels are referring to culprit named Gopal as 'shooter'. He'd be a certified terrorist only if his name was Ghazi or Ghazanfar," another tweet on the handle read, questioning the description of the shooter in certain TV news channels.

The entire drama in the university, which triggered panic in the area, was captured by television cameras that showed the man in light coloured pants and a dark jacket, walking away on an empty road barricaded by police, turning around and shouting at the protesters in Hindi, "Take this independence".

"We were moving towards the Holy Family Hospital where the police had raised barricades. Suddenly, a gun-wielding man came out and opened fire. One bullet hit my friend's hand," Aamna Asif, a student of economics at the university, told PTI.

She said her friend, Shadab Farooq, a mass communication student, was injured in his left hand and taken to the AIIMS Trauma Centre.