An Argentine coach, training young talent for a month in Srinagar at the request of the Jammu and Kashmir Football Association, was allegedly beaten up on Wednesday by personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force for not knowing Hindi.
Juan Marcos, who holds FIFA license, said he had gone to local BSNL office to inquire about his Internet connection when the CRPF personnel posted there roughed him up.
"I was pushed around and beaten up by the security forces personnel just because I could not speak Hindi. They thought I was a Kashmiri pretending not to know Hindi," Marcos said.
"The misbehaviour started when the security personnel asked me to leave my bag, containing my camera and travel documents, with them without any receipt," the coach said.
Marcos claimed he was detained by the personnel in a sand bunker and was allowed to go only after a senior officer came to his rescue.
"It does not matter whether I am a foreigner or a Kashmiri... How can they start beating up anybody without any reason? Just because they are in uniform and have a gun?" However, CRPF Spokesman Prabhakar Tripathy denied the allegations leveled by Marcos.
"No such incident took place. The coach mistakenly entered the wrong place as he could not speak Hindi, an English speaking officer showed him the right way," he said, adding that the Argentine had left his visiting card with the officer as evidence that he was not treated badly.
JKFA Secretary Bashir Ahmad said they had taken up the issue with the civil and police authorities so that the erring personnel were punished. "I do not know what impression he will take with him and how that would affect the tourism industry of the state," Ahmad added.
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