SRINAGAR: Senior National Conference leader and Lok Sabha MP Justice (Retd) Hasnain Masoodi said J&K Lt Governor Manoj Sinha assured him of probe into the Lawaypora encounter in which three youth from south Kashmir were killed. Their families alleged that the three were not militants but innocent civilians.
“I talked to Lt Governor Manoj Sinha yesterday evening about the Lawapora encounter. I told him that the police version about the incident is vague and contradictory. In one part, police says they were not listed militants and in another part, they say a different thing,” Masoodi told The New Indian Express.
According to the army and police, three youth Zubair Ahmad Lone R/o Turkawangam, Shopian; Aijaz Maqbool Ganai (undergraduate student) and Athar Mushtaq (class 11th student), both hailing from Pulwama, were killed in a gunfight in Lawaypora area in outskirts of Srinagar on December 30. However, families of the deceased youth have said the three were not militants but innocent civilians, who were not remotely connected with militancy.
Masoodi said he told the LG that they have already experienced the bitter July 18 Shopian encounter, which turned out to be fake where the three militants that were killed turned out to be poor labourers from Rajouri.
“I also urged him that bodies of three youth should be handed over to their families for proper burial at their native places,” he said.
The NC MP said the Lt Governor gave him a patient hearing and assured him of inquiry into the encounter.
The PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti has also written a letter to Lt Governor today and demanded return of bodies of three slain youth to their families and holding of inquiry into the encounter.
The bodies of three slain youth were buried by police in a graveyard in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district. Only a few family members of the slain youth were allowed to attend the burial.
After the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, police is not handing over bodies of local militants to their families and instead bury the bodies quietly in graveyards in central and north Kashmir.
The army has maintained that the trio was planning a big attack on the highway.
General Officer Commanding (GoC) Kilo Force H S Sahi said the militants were given ample opportunity to surrender but they fired on troops and lobbed grenades.
He said after the initial firing one of the militants tried to come out of the house, where they were trapped. “However, others fired and lobbed grenades on forces and called him back”.
The GoC said arms and ammunition used by militants indicates that they were planning a big attack on the highway.
Police, however, have said the killed militants were not mentioned in “our list of militants”.
“But two of them are hardcore associates of militants (OGWs). Reportedly, third might have joined very recently,” a police spokesman has said.