Jammu and Kashmir government has ordered a magisterial inquiry into an encounter in Hyderpora area of Srinagar, where two civilians were killed in the crossfire.
The office of Jammu and Kashmir LG Manoj Sinha had said in a tweet earlier that the administration will take suitable action as soon as a report is submitted in a time-bound manner.
“A magisterial inquiry by officer of ADM rank has been ordered in Hyderpora encounter. Govt will take suitable action as soon as report is submitted in a time-bound manner. JK admin reiterates commitment of protecting lives of innocent civilians & it will ensure there is no injustice,” Office of LG J-K, said in the tweet.
Earlier, on Thursday, the bodies of Altaf Ahmad and Mudasir Gul were exhumed and handed over to their families for last rites.
An encounter between security forces and terrorists had broken out in the Hyderpora area of Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir on November 15 after input was received by police regarding the presence of terrorists in an illegal call centre in a private building in the area.
The Jammu and Kashmir Police said that two terrorists identified as Haider, a Pakistani terrorist and his associate Amir Ahmad resident of Banihal, were killed in the encounter.
However, the owner of the building, Altaf Ahmad, as well as tenant, Mudasir Ahmad, both received critical gunshot injuries and succumbed to their injuries.
All the four persons killed in the encounter were buried in the Handwara area of Kupwara district.
There was an outrage over the killing of these two civilians and also over the decision to bury them away from their homes without any family member attending the last rites.
The families had rejected the official claim of the two men being killed in crossfire and alleged that the two were murdered in “cold blood”.
Srinagar deputy commissioner Ajaz Asad appointed ADC (Srinagar) Khurshid Ahmad Shah as the inquiry officer for the Hyderpora encounter and asked him to submit his report within 15 days. “It has been felt expedient to conduct a magisterial inquiry into the matter so as to ascertain the facts and circumstances related to the incident and the cause of death,” the deputy commissioner’s order said. He said a case (FIR vide No. 193/2021) was registered on November 16 at Police Station Sadder, Srinagar “and is under investigation by an SIT”.
Meanwhile, the ADC (Srinagar) issued a general notice asking the general public or any person who had knowledge of the incident, and was willing to record his/ her statement or wanted to give any other information about the incident, to come to his office for recording of statements within 10 days.