Srinagar, Nov 16: Peoples Democratic Party Chief Mehbooba Mufti and CPI (M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami on Tuesday demanded judicial enquiry while national Conference Vice President Omar Abdullah demanded “impartial & credible” probe into the killing of “civilians” at Hyderpora here.
Chairman of Peoples Conference and former Minister in erstwhile J&K government Sajjad Gani Lone said that it an “opportunity” for Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to “assert that human lives matter” by getting details revealed through “neutral institution” while Apni party leader and Mayor Srinagar Junaid Azim Mattu demanded “time-bound” probe into the “grave and serious allegations”.
“Using innocent civilians as human shields, getting them killed in cross firing & then conveniently labelling them as OGWs is part of GOIs rulebook now,” former chief minister in PDP-BJP government Mehbooba Mufti said in a tweet. “Imperative that a credible judicial enquiry is done to bring out the truth & put an end to this rampant culture of impunity,” she added . .
Demanding a judicial probe into the killings of Altaf Ahmed and Mudasir Gul, who were killed in Hyderpora “encounter”, CPI (M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami urged the authorities to handover their bodies to their families for proper burial.
“Allegedly using slain unarmed civilians as human shields is shocking and must be probed through judicial process. The circumstances in which these killings happened need to be thoroughly probed,” Tarigami said in a statement issued here.
“The rule of the law is being violated with impunity in Kashmir which is highly unfortunate, he said, adding, “ From arbitrary arrests of people, including youth to booking them under draconian laws and now allegations of using civilians as human-shields, the situation is turning from bad to worse.”
National Conference Vice president and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah also demanded an “impartial & credible inquiry.”
“An impartial & credible inquiry in to the recent encounter in #Hyderpora is an absolute necessity. There are far too many questions being raised about the encounter & about the people killed,” Omar said in a tweet at around 4 p.m., belated when compared to his statements in recent past.
“There have been numerous instances of fake encounters in the past and the questions raised about this #hyderporaencounter need to be answered swiftly & in a credible manner,” Omar said.
Sajjad Gani Lone said the incident deserves “transparent description of what happened by a neutral institution.”
“In the midst of conflicting claims in the Hyderpora encounter the least we deserve is a transparent description of what happened by a neutral institution. This is neither the first time nor the last time. Manoj Sinha- you have the opportunity to assert that human lives matter,” he said in a tweet. Sajjad however did use his often used word “army of orphans created” whenever blame of civilian killings is on unknown gunmen suspected to be militants.
Mayor Srinagar and Apni Party leader Junaid Azim Mattu tweeted that “grave and serious allegations emerging from the Hyderpora encounter.”
“Request Hon’ble LG @manojsinha_ Sahab to order an impartial and time-bound probe to ascertain the truth. Hope the truth prevails,” he said, adding, “The families of the two civilians should be heard and heard dispassionately.”
