J&K operation ends in death of top ultra, 4 civilians

PARIMPORA (Srinagar), SEPT 27: Six lives were lost today in a pre-dawn operation before the Srinagar police could kill a top Harkat comman...

PARIMPORA (Srinagar), SEPT 27: Six lives were lost today in a pre-dawn operation before the Srinagar police could kill a top Harkat commander believed to be responsible for the deaths of around 50 persons, mostly policemen.

Of the dead, four were local residents and two policemen. The civilians alleged they were used as human shields and that two of them were killed when they were ordered to retrieve the body of a policeman, a charge the authorities denied.

The operation began with the Budgam Police cordoning off a house in the Parimpora neighbourhood in the city after receiving information that top Harkat commander Showkat Ahmad Lone alias Puppi Lone — who has a prize of Rs 5 lakh on his head — was hiding there.

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Within minutes, policemen had swarmed the entire area. Havaldar Javeed Iqbal went ahead with the first assualt party, but was killed when the holed-up militant lobbed a grenade. A CRPF man, Manipaul Singh, too was killed.

This set off panic and policemen reportedly opened fire.

Bilal Ahmad Sheikh, 22, was fast asleep when policemen, wearing black handkerchiefs as masks, knocked at his door. He and his father Ghulam Mohammad Sheikh, a contractor, were asked to come out. The policemen also called his cousin Bashir Ahmad, a Matador driver, to accompany them.

“By the time we reached the bund, we were six men from the neighbourhood,” he said. “The policemen asked us to line up and then got my father, my cousin Bashir and another neighbour Mohammad Ayub to remove their shirts and undershirts. Then the policemen asked them to go ahead and evacuate a body of a CRPF man from the encounter site.”

Ghulam Mohammad Sheikh and his nephew Bashir Ahmad Shiekh were hit by bullets. “Bashir died on the spot while Ghulam Mohammad Sheikh was seriously injured when bullets rained on us,” said Sajjad Ahmad, who was also with the group of civilians.

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Sajjad, who was lucky to escape unhurt, took the injured Sheikh to hospital where he died. Another local, Mohammad Ayub, was hit in his hand in the firing.

Two men, Ghulam Qadir Mir and Ghulam Hassan Mir of Handwara, who were working as labourers in a nearby saw mill also got killed. However, it wasn’t clear how this happened although police claimed they were caught in the cross-fire.

When contacted, Inspector General of Police A Bhan denied that any civilians were used as human shields. “It is baseless,” he said. “The civilians got killed in cross fire. In fact, the holed-up militant hurled dozens of grenades from within the hideout,” he said.