Jammu, August 12 (KMS): In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Hurriyat leaders and organizations have strongly condemned the killing of three labourers from Rajouri by Indian Army in a fake encounter in Shopian.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Movement (JKPM) Chairman, Mir Shahid Saleem, in a statement issued in Jammu said that the fake encounters were a common practice by Indian troops in the occupied territory and Shopian incident was one of the most gruesome acts. He wondered that those who killed the innocent boys are now conducting the investigation which is a sheer mockery of justice.
Mir Shahid Saleem demanded a judicial probe by a sitting high court judge into the incident and said that the bodies of the killed youth should be handed over to their relatives.
The Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Pir Panjal Peace Foundation, Hanif Kalas, in his statement issued in Jammu said that the Indian Army personnel had been involved in a number of such incidents in the past in order to get promotions and rewards. He said that the Indian Army’s statement that it would investigate the incident was tantamount to hoodwinking the people of the occupied territory. He called for an impartial inquiry into the killings by an international agency.
Hanif Kalas also paid rich tribute to senior Hurriyat leader, Sheikh Abdul Aziz, on his 12th anniversary. He said that the mission of the Kashmiri martyrs would be taken to its logical conclusion.
Tehreek-e-Wahdat-e-Islami, a constituent of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, in a statement issued in Srinagar strongly condemned the brutal killing of three missing Kashmiri labourers by Indian troops in a fake encounter and expressed solidarity with the bereaved families. A TWI spokesman said that communal fascist Indian government of Bharatiya Janata Party had given its forces a free hand to massacre innocent civilians in fake encounters in the name of so-called siege and search operations. He said that the Indian Army had a long history of extrajudicial killings of unarmed Kashmiris during fake encounters.
The spokesman said that the killings of five Kashmiri youth in fake encounters in March 2000 in Pathribal area of Islamabad and three in Machil area of Kupwara in April 2010 were glaring examples of the worst brutalities perpetrated by the Indian Army in the occupied territory.
It is to mention here that the labourers identified as Abrar Gujar, Imtiyaz Gujar and Abrar Khan from Rajouri district were killed by Indian Army’s 62 Rashtriya Rifles during a cordon and search operation at Keller Amshipora in Shopian district on July 18, 2020. Indian troops during the operation claimed that the killed persons were “militants”. The families of the labourers said that they had left their homes on 16th July to find work in Kashmir Valley.