Hyderpora Encounter: Police say bodies will be handed over to families amid calls for shutdown

Four persons were killed in the Hyderpora encounter on Monday evening which included two civilians from Srinagar - Altaf Ahmad Bhat and Dr Mudasir Gul and a young man Amir Magrey from Ramban. Police said that a foreign militant identified as Haider alias Bilal Bai was also killed in the operation.

Srinagar: In a significant move, the Jammu and Kashmir administration on Thursday ordered a probe into the gunfight that took place at Hyderpora area in Srinagar on Monday. According to police, four people, including a foreign militant, were killed during the gunfight, a claim the families of the locals killed in the gunfight continue to contest.

Meanwhile, the police have also assured the protesting families that bodies of the civilians killed during the gunfight will be exhumed and handed over to the family by tomorrow (Friday).

Amid mounting pressure on the administration, the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Manoj Sinha, today ordered a magisterial inquiry into the gunfight.

"A magisterial inquiry by an officer of Additional District Magistrate rank has been ordered in Hyderpora encounter. The government will take suitable action as soon as the report is submitted in a time-bound manner," Sinha informed through his official Twitter handle, adding, "Jammu and Kashmir administration reiterates the commitment of protecting lives of innocent civilians and it will ensure there is no injustice."

Those killed in the gunfight on Monday evening included two civilians from Srinagar - Altaf Ahmad Bhat and Dr Mudasir Gul and a young man Amir Magrey from Ramban. Police said that the foreign militant was identified as Haider alias Bilal Bai.

IGP Kashmir later admitted that Bhat was killed in the crossfire. However, all four were buried in north Kashmir's Handwara area.

Soon after the LG's order, the Director-General of Police Dilbag Singh claimed that "police is open to correction if anything has gone wrong."

The families have been protesting for the last three days in Srinagar demanding the bodies of their relatives. However, the police on late Wednesday night cracked down on the protesting family members and detained some of them. The detained persons were later released.

Meanwhile, the local mainstream political parties and Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association (JKHCBA) protested supporting the demand to return the bodies.

"We had planned protest to demand the return the bodies of slain civilians at our Srinagar office. We were not allowed to do the same and in fact, all roads leading to our office was also barricaded by the police. Also, our senior party leaders were detained, "Muhammad Yasin Bhat, PDP leader, said.

However, Sajad Lone-led Peoples Conference and Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah were allowed to protest in support of the families demand.

Peoples Conference's senior vice president Abdul Gani Vakil demanded the return of mortal remains of Altaf Bhat and Dr Mudassir Gul to their families as a first step in ensuring justice to the families.

"Our President Sajad Lone has already appealed to the Prime Minister for his personal intervention in ensuring that justice is delivered to the families of the victims,” he said, demanding that a judicial probe by a sitting judge should be held to ensure impartially.

“We stand in solidarity with the families of Bhat and Dr Gul and share their pain and agony in this hour of grief. We also appeal to every media outlet and civil society of India to raise this issue with utmost urgency and sincerity," Vakil added.

Dead bodies will be handed over to families, assure JK police

Meanwhile, police sources asserted that the bodies of the civilians killed during the gunfight will be exhumed and handed over to the family by tomorrow (Friday).

"Families had been called to Police Control Room (PCR) Srinagar and they have been assured that the bodies will be exhumed and returned to them," a police source said.

He further said, "Bodies will be handed over to them (families) once all legal formalities are completed. Most likely by Friday. As soon as formalities are completed, an exhumation order will be issued and then the bodies will be handed over."

However, the families are not satisfied with the assurance of the police and administration.

"They had called us to PCR today. We went there accompanied by the SHO Saddar Police station. We met IGP (Kashmir) and told him about our demands and concerns. We were told that bodies will be returned after the meeting of top officials from the J&K administration. We were told to wait for the phone call," a relative of slain youth Muhammad Altaf Bhat told ETV Bharat.

"We are not satisfied with police assurance. Till now we have been assured three times that the bodies will be returned and today is the fourth time. But nothing happened, all we had to face was harassment. Didn't you see what happened last night?" he added.

National Conference vice-president and the former J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah said bodies of civilians killed in gunfight should be exhumed in Handwara and handed over to their families for last rites.

Talking to the reporters, he said "I don't ask for anything except the bodies of those buried in Handwara."

“I had decided not to stage a sit-in but to knock on other doors but the way families of the slain were treated yesterday evening, I couldn’t control myself and decided to raise my voice,” the NC leader said, adding, "The families were first called to the SP office and then to PCR and then asked to wait for two, three days. So I had no option but to join the families in protest."

He later ended the protest, saying, "I was in touch with the family of the slain and they have been assured by the IGP Kashmir that bodies of their loved ones will be given back."

"If the families have been assured, I am assured. There is no purpose in continuing the sit-in. It wasn’t my purpose to create any law and order or any other issue. Hope these families get justice,” he said.

All Party Hurriyat Conference, Bar Association call for shutdown

The lawyers affiliated with the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association (JKHCBA) also held a protest march against the civilian killings in Kashmir at the Sadder Court complex in Srinagar. However, the protest march was foiled by the police and lawyers were not allowed to move out of the court premises.

They have also called for a complete shutdown on Friday in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh in solidarity with the family members of slain youth.

"The association in its emergency meeting has decided to call upon the people of J&K and Ladakh to observe complete Strike on tomorrow (Friday) in order to show solidarity with the family members of the civilians killed at Hyderpora, Srinagar," the association said in a statement.

The statement further read: "the complete strike will be also taken as a strong protest against the killings of innocent people of J&K. We are demanding a high-level impartial probe in this matter and also appeal to the conscience of people at the helm of affairs to return the dead bodies of civilians to their families so that they can perform their last rites."

Meanwhile, the All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) has also called for a complete strike on Friday.

"The tragedy that has struck the families of innocent civilians killed in the Hyderpora gunfight is so tormenting that its pain has stunned the people of Kashmir," APHC said in a statement.

"18-month-old daughter of slain Dr Mudasir Gul held by her distraught mother who is sitting on the roads in cold, protesting not for punishment to the killers of her husband, but pleading and begging to the authorities that at least the dead body of her husband be returned to her so that she sees him one last time and gives him a decent burial is agonising," the statement further read.

APHC said that it regrets that most of its leadership and political activists are either in jails or under house detention and are unable to protest such inhumanity, and stand in solidarity with the devastated families of the slain civilians and their demand that the dead bodies of their loved ones be returned to them for burial. It said that people should observe a shutdown on Friday on their own.

On Tuesday, police claimed to have killed a foreign militant Haider along with his local aide Amir Magray, civilian Muhammad Altaf Bhat and militant associate Dr Mudasir Gul during the Hyderpora gunfight. IGP Kashmir later admitted that Bhat was killed in the crossfire. However, all four were buried in north Kashmir's Handwara area.