Srinagar: More than a year after a Kashmiri civilian was killed in firing allegedly by the army in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has filed a case in connection with the incident.The commission has filed a case under 49/9/3/2026-AF following a complaint into the death of Waseem Ahmad Mir, a truck driver from Goripora village of Sopore and the lone bread-earner of his family in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district.Mir died in a firing incident in Sangrama locality along the Srinagar-Baramulla highway on February 6 last year when a group of army soldiers opened fire at a “speeding suspicious” truck which had allegedly jumped a security checkpoint. In a statement at the time, the army said the checkpoint was set up “on a very specific intelligence input about movement of terrorists” in the area and a team of soldiers chased the truck for 23 kilometres before opening fire.The “shots were fired … at (the) tyres” of the truck, the army statement said. Mir, who was driving the truck, suffered grievous gunshot injuries and he was taken to the government medical college in Baramulla where doctors declared him dead. The Army hasn’t clarified how Mir suffered those injuries.Laden with some 800 boxes of apples, the truck was on the way to a fruit market in Kolkata when the incident happened. The killing of Mir prompted uproar in Kashmir with the opposition political parties, local residents of Goripora and his family demanding an impartial probe. Security forces had thrown a tight cordon around Mir’s village and some journalists were allegedly stopped from reporting the story on the day of his demise. Before leaving his home on February 5, a day before his killing, Mir told his ailing mother Nisara Begum that he was planning to take her to a good doctor for a health check-up. Mir’s family includes his father Abdul Majeed Mir who works as a seasonal mason, mother who is a housewife, two younger brothers Shafqat Majeed and Irfan Majeed who work as salesman at a garments store in Sopore and housekeeping supervisor in a hotel respectively, and a younger sister who is jobless. The family sources said that the condition of the downtrodden family went “from bad to worse” after the demise of their main bread-earner. “They have been fighting for justice including compensation under SRO-43 but nothing has materialised so far. Over the last one year, they have only been going from one government office to another with the hope of some relief,” Mir’s relative said.The SRO-43 governs the compassionate appointment or monetary compensation to the families of deceased government employees or victims of militancy-related actions. It has also been extended to families who have lost their loved ones in action by security forces. Tamanna Pankaj, a Delhi-based lawyer who filed the complaint with the NHRC into Mir’s tragic death said that the case has been filed in the ‘incident category’ of ‘fake encounter’ under diary number 2750/IN/2025.In her complaint in February 2025, Pankaj told the commission that Mir was driving a truck carrying apple boxes when he was signalled to stop at a checkpoint in north Kashmir. Citing the army statement, Pankaj said that after being fired at by the army soldiers, the vehicle halted near Sangrama chowk on the Srinagar-Baramulla highway. When the truck was checked, Mir had sustained gunshot injuries. “The official version is contested by the victim’s family, who assert that Waseem was an innocent civilian with no involvement in any unlawful activities. Medical sources at GMC Baramulla have reportedly indicated that the nature of Waseem’s gunshot wound suggests that he was shot from close range, contradicting the Army’s claim that the firing was only directed at the tyres,” the complaint notes.It adds: “This incident raises serious concerns about the excessive use of force by security personnel and violation of human rights.”Pankaj said that she received a mail from the NHRC on Tuesday informing that a case has been registered in connection with her complaint.The mail read: “NHRC has registered a case no. 49/9/3/2026-AF on the complaint regarding WASEEM AHMAD MIR. You may use this registration number for future reference. – NHRC, New Delhi Please do not reply or send any email at nhrc.india@nic.in.”Following the reading down of Article 370 in 2019, it is perhaps for the first time that the commission has filed a case in connection with the killing of a Kashmiri civilian involving the armed forces.In 2021, the commission issued notices to the chief secretary and director general of police of Jammu and Kashmir following a spate of targeted killings of the Hindu minorities.