Srinagar: National Conference vice-president and the former J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah Thursday said while pitching for the exhumation of those killed in Hyderpora encounter said that despite having served as the head of the erstwhile State he never heard or saw anything like “hybrid militant.”
“We are sitting here peacefully. If we wanted, we would have blocked roads, bridges, but no. There has been no sloganeering, no law and order disturbance and no road has been blocked.
“We are not raising voice against the government, we just demand that the bodies be returned,” he told reporters at Sonwar.
Omar said despite the police admitting that the civilian was killed in ‘crossfire’, his body was not given to the family, but buried in Handwara.
“We heard this morning that the families were called to PCR and we were hopeful that after Farooq Abdullah talked to LG, there will be some development in it, so we waited. We kept waiting in our office from 11 am thinking that something will be done, but they (families) were told to wait for two to three days,” he said.
The NC leader said he wanted Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to assure the families that Justice will be done.
Asked about “Hybrid militants”, the former chief minister of J&K said that he has chaired a series of UHQ meetings when he was heading the erstwhile State.
“I have read so many intelligence reports and I do watch happenings across the world but I haven’t heard about Hybrid militants. Some should make me understand what it means,” he said and reiterated that bodies of those slain in Hyderpora encounter be handed over to their families.
Omar also told reporters that he 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 of 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, adding that his only motive was that no other family suffers like those who were protesting in the bone chilling cold at press enclave yesterday.
The People’s Conference led by Sajad Lone also took out a protest march here, demanding the return of bodies of the civilians killed in Hyderpora encounter and a judicial probe by a serving High Court judge into the incident.
Senior vice president of the party Abdul Gani Vakil along with dozens of workers joined the protest held near M A Road here.
Vakil said the Hyderpora encounter is strife with doubts when seen with perception of neutrality and it is only after an impartial or neutral probe that the recent turn of events would be justly perceivable to every citizen of this country beyond a reasonable doubt. (with agency inputs)
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