Srinagar Encounter: Netizens started the protest on social media with #KashmirBleeds
Three terrorists were killed in an anti-terror operation at Lawaypora on Srinagar’s outskirts on Wednesday.
According to the security officials, the slain trio as Aijaz Ahmad Ganie and Ather Mushtaq from Pulwama, and Zubair Ahmad Lone from Shopian.
At a press briefing, General Officer Commanding (GoC) Kilo Force. H.S. Sahi, said, “We had been getting inputs about militant movement on the national highway. The operation was launched last evening after getting inputs that militants were inside a house close to the national highway. They were asked to surrender, however, they responded with firing and the operation was suspended for the night,” he said.
He said when the operation resumed in the morning, they were again given an offer to surrender; however, they again started firing and hurled grenades at the forces, which gave us an indication they had no intention to surrender.” He said they used heavy ammunition and it indicates that they were up to some big operation along the highway.
The police said an AK-47 rifle, two pistols, and some grenades were recovered from the spot.
After the incident, the families complained that the trio were friends and had gone to the University of Kashmir in Srinagar for academic registration, only to lose their lives in a “fake encounter”.
The distraught family staged a protest outside Srinagar Police Control Room and raised slogans demanding Aijaz’s body. Some youths, meanwhile, pelted stones at security forces near the encounter site after the firefight ended.
On the other hand, some local residents and netizens have started their protest against this encounter on Twitter with a #KashmirBleeds.
Mr. Masood Khan (President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir ) has tweeted in protest of this injustice, he wrote, “Most of ‘encounters’ in #IOJK are #fake and #staged, in which the #Kashmiri youth and civilians are killed by falsely declaring them as terrorists.”
Most of ‘encounters’ in #IOJK are #fake and #staged, in which the #Kashmiri youth and civilians are killed by falsely declaring them as terrorists. #KashmirBleeds pic.twitter.com/Uptk5l5gOo
— Masood Khan (@Masood__Khan) December 28, 2020
Former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti described the allegation of fake encounter as “worrying”. She said in the past few months after the Shopian fake encounter, other families too in J&K have alleged that their sons were innocent and killed in staged encounters. “Authorities need to come clean on this,” she said.
