Families raise questions on Srinagar encounter

None of the three militants killed was “listed” by the police

Wednesday’s operation resulting in the death of three militants in Srinagar’s Lawaypora area by the Army’s 2 Rashtriya Rifles (RR), which saw an image-denting militant attack on November 26, has come under the scanner after the families of the dead men proclaimed their innocence.

Police sources said the operation launched in an abandoned three-storey building was carried out by the 2 RR on the basis of intelligence generated by its human network. The intelligence inputs were shared with the police only after the operation resulted in the trapping of the three militants.

Just over a month ago, The Resistance Front (TRF), a militant outfit, had released a video showing its attackers killing two soldiers of the 2 RR near the same encounter site and then escaping without any resistance from the unit.

Police sources had said the three trapped militants were carrying one AK-47 rifle and two pistols “but engaged the Army and the police for more than 17 hours and remained holed up the whole night, while returning fire of the security forces”.

According to the police spokesman, the operation was halted for the night and firing which stopped around 11 p.m., resumed “only in the morning”, resulting in the death of the three militants.

The police said none of the slain militants was “categorised as an active militant” or “declared missing”, “but two were working as over ground workers of the militants”.

The police, however, have not yet investigated who brought the youth from south Kashmir to central Kashmir. Though the Army said they were planning a major attack on the Srinagar-Baramulla highway in coming days.

Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbagh Singh said he had no reason to doubt the Army’s operation, “but the police will still investigate the claims made by families”.

“I want to ask them what their children were doing at the encounter site if they had gone to submit a form,” DGP Singh said.

On the police statement that the trapped militants were offered the option of surrender, the families said they were not approached by the police to join in appealing for surrender, as is the policy of the security forces in most cases.

However, the police chief said the encounter could not be questioned on the fact that militants were not listed. “Not every militant is listed with the police. When a person leaves his home to join, he doesn’t tell his parents,” he added.

‘Never under scanner’

The mother of one of the alleged militants, Zubair Ahmed Lone from Shopian’s Tarkwangam area, on Thursday said her son was “ never under the radar of security forces”.

“Our family was never questioned; was my son was never called by the police for any (militant) activities in the past. Had he told me that I am with militants, I would not have hid it. Zubair was not a militant. He worked as a mason and pursued education at the same time,” she said.

She appealed to the police to return the body of her son. “Let me bury my son in the ancestral graveyard. We could easily offer prayers. His sisters have not seen his face one last time,” she added.

Zubair’s two brothers are with the J&K police. “My brother left home on Tuesday around 1:30 p.m.,” Mohammed Altaf, one of the brothers said.

Two other slain militants, Aijaz Ahmed Ganai and Ather Mushtaq, were from Pulwama, and their families claimed that “both were students and were in Srinagar to register in an education institute”.

“We appeal to the police to check their phone logs and see who they were in touch with, if they were militants,” one family member said.

Meanwhile, Peoples Democratic Party Mehbooba Mufti, who visited the families, tweeted: “Forget justice, even their bodies are not being returned to them for the last rites. They have lost their beloved sons forever and in the midst of grief have to plead even for closure.”

Meanwhile, a spontaneous shutdown was observed in the twin districts of Shopian and Pulwama in south Kashmir. Authorities snapped mobile Internet services, “as a precautionary measure”.

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