Hyderpora ‘encounter’: We are open to correction if anything has gone wrong, says J&K DGP

Srinagar: On a day the J&K Lt. Governor ordered a magisterial probe into the Hyderpora ‘encounter’ in which four persons were killed, Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbag Singh said the “police is open to correction if anything has gone wrong”.

Earlier in the day, Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha ordered a time-bound magisterial probe into Monday’s Hyderpora ‘encounter’ in which, according to the police, ‘a foreign terrorist, his local associate, Altaf Ahmad (owner of the building where the encounter took place) and Dr Mudasir (was running a call centre in a rented floor of the building, but was a terror associate), were killed.

Families of the building owner, Altaf Ahmad and Dr Mudasir have demanded their bodies to be returned so that the last rites could be performed.

The families also challenged the authorities to prove that the two civilians had anything to do with militancy.

All the four persons slain in the Hyderpora ‘encounter’ were buried by the authorities in north Kashmir Handwara tehsil after the demand of the families to return the bodies was turned down.

Dilbag Singh (DGP) told some reporters, “We will look into the demands of the families. We are open to corrections if anything has gone wrong. A police probe will also find out what went wrong.

“We will find out what happened in the Hyderpora encounter. We are for the safety of people and will not shy away from a probe.”

All mainstream politicians, including three former Chief Ministers (Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti), Sajad Lone of the Peoples Conference and Yusuf Tarigami of the CPI-M have demanded an impartial probe into the incident.

Peoples Conference leaders, including Abdul Gani Vakil, Khurshid Alam and others carried out a protest against the Hyderpora incident.