Lawaypora Encounter: Due process of law will be followed: Govt

Srinagar, Jan 01: The Jammu and Kashmir Government Friday said that ‘due process of law will be followed’ into the encounter at Hokersar in which three “militants” were killed.
While police and Army claim that three youth killed were militants, their families have contested it, saying that trio was ‘innocent’.
“We are collecting all the details of the encounter. As per the law, everything will be done. In every encounter, the case is registered. I assure you that in this case the due process of law will be followed,” Advisor to J&K Lt Governor, Manoj Sinha, Rajiv Rai Bhatnagar told news agency KINS over phone.
However, Bhatnagar said that it was not the encounter which was held in the forests or in the night. “The encounter was in the city and that too in presence of the people,” he maintained.
It is to mention here that soon after the encounter the families of three youths killed in an encounter protested outside the Srinagar police control room (PCR) and claimed they were not militants.
However, at a press conference, the Army had said they had tracked these militants on the basis of intelligence inputs, adding that the latter “fired indiscriminately” and even lobbed grenades at the security forces.
“For past many days, intelligence inputs were pouring in continuously about the movement of militants on the Srinagar-Baramulla highway. Yesterday (Tuesday), we developed leads and came to know that militants are hiding in a house right opposite to Noora hospital at Lawaypora in HMT area,” General Officer Commanding (GoC) of the counter-insurgency Kilo Force, H.S. Sahi had said.
In a statement issued Wednesday evening, J&K Police had also said, “On 29-12-2020, at about 05:30 pm, troops of 02RR launched a cordon-and-search operation on a specific input near Hokersar where the militants hurled grenade on the searching party and fired indiscriminately on troops while laying cordon.
“On receipt of this information, Srinagar police immediately along with Police Component Srinagar and Valley QAT (Quick Action Team) CRPF rushed to the spot.”
The three men were identified as Ajaz Ahmed Ganai and Athar Mushtaq Wani of Pulwama and Zubair Ahmed Lone of Shopian.
Director General of Police (DGP), Dilbag Singh in a press conference had said that he had no reason to dispute what a senior army official has stated about the Lawaypora encounter, but had added that police will “still investigate the claims made by families of the slain trio.”