Building owner died as terrorist used him as human shield: SIT on Hyderpora encounter

Srinagar: The Special Investigation Team probe into the Hyderpora operation in early November that led to the elimination of two terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir has revealed that an eyewitness had identified a ‘foreign terrorist’ at the site of the encounter, and that the terrorist used the building owner has a ‘human shield’.

“A zonal-level SIT constituted for Hyderpora operation established a few things – 2 pistols, 4 magazines, etc., were seized from the initial site. During site inspection, 2 bodies of a local terrorist and building owner were recovered at the building’s entry.  The layout plan was made after site inspection. The body of Dr Mudasir Gul was recovered in the hall upstairs. An eye-witness of an attack at a PA source in Srinagar identified the foreign terrorist behind the attack as one of the bodies in Hyderpora operation,” SIT in-charge DIG Sujit K Singh told reporters in the Valley.

Two terrorists were killed in an encounter in Hyderpora on November 15 and the Jammu and Kashmir Police had said that they acted on intelligence inputs about the presence of terrorists in the building.

The police had appealed to the owner of the building ‘Altaf Ahmad’, as well as the tenant ‘Mudasir’ to assist in the search. However, the two were killed during the encounter after allegedly refusing to comply.

Former J&K chief minister and Lok Sabha MP Farooq Abdullah had last month written to President Ram Nath Kovind seeking a judicial probe into the operation.

Abdullah, who also heads the People’s alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), urged the President to order a time-bound judicial probe into the incident in which four persons, including a foreign militant, his local associate and two others were killed.

“The tragic incident that took place at Hyderpora area of Srinagar on Monday evening has evoked enormous public anger. In this unfortunate incident three civilians got killed in suspicious circumstances. The incident calls for a time-bound judicial probe so that true facts are unraveled and brought in the public domain. Needless to state that such unfortunate incidents widen the gulf between the people of Jammu and Kashmir and the Government of India and, therefore, are to be avoided at any cost,” Abdullah said in his letter on November 19.