Hours after the security forces announced that they killed three militants in an encounter at Lawaypora in Srinagar on Wednesday, family members of the ‘militants’ staged a protest in Srinagar against the killings and alleged they were picked up and killed in a fake encounter.
They identified the three slain youths as Zubair Ahmad from Turkawangam in Shopian, Ajaz Maqbool and Athar Mushtaq from Putrigam in Pulwama. The family members said they were students, and demanded their bodies for burial.
The bodies of the militants haven't been handed over to their families due to COVID-19 protocols.
The families staged a protest outside the Police Control Room (PCR) in Srinagar and said the trio had left home on Tuesday for some work and added that they are in shock to learn that the youngsters were killed in an encounter. “Why did they kill them. What was their fault,” the protestors asked.
The encounter at Lawaypora began on Tuesday evening . The operation was halted in the night and resumed in the morning. The security forces claimed that the three militants were killed and arms were recovered from them.
Addressing a press conference at 2 RR headquarters , General officer Commanding (GoC) Kilo Force H.S. Sahi said the three militants were planning a big strike on the highway for publicity.
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He said for the past one week, five militants, including a Pakistani national, were killed in two separate gunfights in north Kashmir. “Since past many days, intelligence inputs were pouring in continuously about the movement of militants on the Srinagar-Baramulla highway. Yesterday, we developed leads and came to know that militants are hiding in a house right opposite to Noora Hospital at Lawaypora in HMT area.”
He said one AK-47 rifle and two pistols were recovered from the slain militants.
Former Jammu & Kashmir chief minister and Peoples’ Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti demanded the authorities to come clean on the encounter. “Worrying that in the past few months after the Shopian fake encounter other families too in J&K have alleged that their sons were innocent & killed in a staged encounter. Authorities need to come clean on this,” she tweeted, along with a video of the protest.
The allegations of fake encounter have come days after the J&K Police filed a chargesheet in the July 18 fake encounter case in which three youth from Rajouri were killed at Amshipora in Shopian.
The chargesheet has accused an Army captain and two civilians of abducting and killing the three youth for prize money.