Police defend restrictions on phones, internet after Nakoo’s killing

 

>Curbs will be reviewed as situation improves, says IGP Kumar

> ‘64 militants killed in 27 operations since January’
Srinagar, May 7: Inspector General of Police- Kashmir Range, Vijay Kumar, on Thursday defended imposition of restrictions on the movement of people and snapping of internet and mobile phones in Kashmir.
He termed them as “necessary” to maintain “law and order” following the killing of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander Riyaz Naikoo along with aide in an encounter with security forces in his hometown Beighpora area of Awantipora.   “The restrictions on internet and phones were necessary to maintain law and order otherwise rumours could have spread, old videos would have been posted to instigate people,” he told reporters here.
The IGP said the restrictions will be reviewed as the “situation improves.”
Regarding Naikoo, he said, Police were tracking his movements from past six months. “There was pinpoint information about his location that led to the operation in which he was killed,” the IGP said.

Terming Naikoo’s killing as “big success” for security establishment and a jolt to Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, the police officer said the slain used to “instigate” youth to join militancy by releasing videos after every month.

Regarding clashes and incidents of stone pelting after Naikoo’s killing, he said, “they were of a localised nature.”

“For the first time since August 5, there was a law and order problem near the site of an encounter after the killing of any militant. It was a localised affair in which a few people were injured and some of them had bullet injuries,” he said.

He said Police, Army and CRPF have launched 27 operations and killed 64 militants since January this year in Jammu and Kashmir.

Besides Naikoo, he said, militant commanders like Qari Yasir of the JeM, Burhan Koka of the Ansar Gazwat ul Hind (AGH) are among those killed. Besides, he said, 25 active militants and 125 over ground workers of the militants have been arrested during this period.

Regarding burial of the four militants killed in two separate encounters in Pulwama at Sonamarg, a far away pace from their hometowns in south Kashmir,  the police officer said the bodies of the militants killed in the encounters will not be handed to their relatives for burial at their native places till COVID-19 curve flattens.

 

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