‘Past experience necessities an independent enquiry’
Srinagar: Hurriyat Conference (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Tuesday sought an impartial probe into Lolab encounter wherein army claimed to have killed seven militants whose bodies were handed over the locals for burial.
In a telephonic statement to KNS, Mirwaiz said that given the past experience of encounters that were later proved ‘stage managed’, a probe through an independent agency must be ordered into the Lolab encounter.
Mirwaiz’s demand comes a day after, the army and police claimed to have killed seven militants in a fierce gun battle that started in Lolab forests in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district.
“See given the past experience, I mean we have witnessed so many encounters wherein police and army claimed to have killed militants but later they proved to be innocent civilians. Though the bodies have been handed over to the locals for burial, but the veracity of the encounter itself must be ascertained by some independent agency,” Mirwaiz demanded, while talking to KNS.
The Hurriyat (M) chairman said: “People still remember encounter like Pathribal, Machil, Ganderbal, Brakpora and many other incidents where innocent civilians were first abducted and later killed in cold blood.”
According to police, 18 RR and Police, killed these militants in an encounter in the jungle area of Dardpora, in the jurisdiction of Police station Lalpora. On Monday (February 24) evening the army said that it laid a cordon around the Madkulla Behak forests of Dardpora village in Lolab after receiving a tip off about the presence militants in the forest. (KNS)