Protesters stormed a police station at lalpora in north Kashmir on Tuesday to take custody of bodies of seven militants killed in a gunfight with security forces. The people suspected that civilians were also killed in the gun-battle, an allegation squarely rejected by the security forces.
The separatists have called for shutdown against the killing and demanded a thorough investigation into the encounter. The security forces on Monday claimed that they killed seven militants, all foreigners, in a gunfight in Dardpora forests of north Kashmir’s lolab pocket. They said the unidentified militants belonged to pan-Islamic lashkar-e-Tayyeba outfit. On Tuesday, a large number of locals gathered around lalpora police station and sought custody of bodies for performance of last rites.
When the police insisted that the bodies would be handed over to local Auqaf after post-mortem and legal formalities, the people stormed the police station and ransacked Station House Officer’s office. The protesters shouted pro-independence slogans and blamed the security forces of staging the encounter in the forests. They said that the slain persons might be civilians.
Refuting the accusations, Army and Jammu and Kashmir Police reiterated that the slain persons were foreign militants. “The documents that were recovered from the slain militants indicate that they belong to the leT outfit,” General Office Commanding (GOC), Kilo Force, Maj Gen S K Saini told reporters. “There is no civilian in the group that has been eliminated by a joint operation of Army and Police on Monday,” JP Singh, outgoing Deputy Inspector General of Police (north Kashmir) said.
He said the dead bodies were buried only after asserting that none of them belonged to any civilian. “The bodies have been properly handed over to the local Anjuman-e-Awqaf and it is only after asserting that none of them is a local, the bodies have been buried,” he said. Sources said that police resorted to aerial firing and burst tear gas shells to disperse protesters who attempted to storm the lalpora police station. Seven photo and video-journalists, who had gone to north Kashmir to record the aftermath of the encounter and Army’s briefing on it, were hurt in clashes. Eyewitnesses said that protesters set ablaze a police vehicle and two bunkers.
DIG said that that the police have documented the bodies and if there was doubt at anytime or somebody claims that the slain persons were civilians, the case can be verified with the records. Describing the killing of seven militants of leT in a fierce encounter on Monday as a major success, Saini said the group could have sneaked into this side from PoK last year, as infiltration routes are still under snow at present. “This was one of the most successful operations at recent times in the valley,” he said.
He said the operation was going on in the area, which has been cordoned off as there could be more militants in the area. He said seven AK rifles, a large cache of arms and ammunition, were recovered from the possession of slain militants. Meanwhile, separatists have demanded probe into the encounter in north Kashmir to alley the suspicion of the local population. Senior Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Geelani has called for shutdown in Kashmir on February 28 against what he called as “staged encounters in Kashmir”.