Hyderpora ‘Encounter’: Those Killed in Gunfight Not Innocent says DGP.

Jammu and Kashmir DGP Dilbag Singh has said that those killed in the Hyderpora ‘encounter’ were not innocents and saying that they are not here to take lessons from others.

Director General of Police (DGP) while addressing a presser said that a special investigation team (SIT) has been constituted by Kashmir Zone Police to investigate the Hyderpora “encounter”.

“We must give them some time to make specific comments. However, I would like to say with full authority that the police is doing its work professionally and our officers know how to conduct operations. We don’t want lessons on conducting operations from the people who are unaware of how the operations are being carried out,” DGP said while replying to a query.

Claiming that the civilians, who were killed in Hyderpora gunfight were ‘not innocents’, DGP said, “There are very strong evidences available in this case and will be shared with all the concerned very soon. The ‘so called innocent civilians’ are taking the foreign militant out for a recce on motorbike, picking up targets and you call them innocent.”

According to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) Correspondent, he further said that their innocence would be proven once the investigation makes further progress.“If someone is providing hiding space to a foreign terrorist in his premises and the terrorist with a weapon is moving around the city and selecting targets. Whereas somebody from (the society) the so-called civilian is taking him out for recce on a motorbike to take up targets for him and saying he is innocent… How innocent he is or he was, would be subsequently proven when the investigation makes progress,” he said.

“The foreign militant (Pakistani national) who was moving around in the City with a weapon was responsible for shooting a policeman and that policeman recognized him, as he fired at him from very close range. Our investigation is in progress, which is suggesting very much that the militant (Pakistani) has a militant network around him, which was supporting him. We will see who is involved to what extent and will be shared at the right time,” DGP said, as per KNO.

Addressing a press conference after seizure of large consignment of drugs from Jammu’s Jajjar Kotli along Jammu-Srinagar highway, Singh reacted to the comments regarding apprehensions on operations carried out for the last two weeks.

DGP, during a press conference here, was answering a question with regard to the doubts expressed by the former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.

“There are persons in the civil society who somehow understand but say something which is away from the reality like some on social media who question on dealing with terrorists. Unfortunately, people are looking at the killers as innocent people. A SIT has been constituted by the zonal police (Kashmir). Give them (us) time to come out with some specific mention on the progress of the case as we are still working on important aspects of the Hyderpora encounter,” DGP Dilbag Singh said.

“This is high time people accept reality without mixing it with their imagination,” he said. “Yesterday three militants were killed in the Rambagh “gunfight”. Srinagar resident Meehran was chief among them and all three are responsible for so many innocent civilian killings including School teachers Supinder Kaur and Deepak Chan Mehra, police SI Arshad and many grenade firing incidents,” he said, adding that “those who try to show them as innocents are enemies of humanity.”

These comments come in relation to the Rambagh “encounter” which have created a storm in the political circles of the Valley.