New Delhi based Track-2 Diplomatic Forum demands impartial probe into Srinagar ‘Encounter’

New Delhi: New Delhi based Track-2 Diplomatic Forum ‘Centre for Peace and Progress’ has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to order an impartial probe into the Srinagar Encounter that resulted into the killing of three youth on December 30, 2020.

In a letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chairman ‘Centre for Peace and Progress’ O.P Shaw has expressed concern over the killing of three young men – Ajaz Maqbool Ganie, Athar Mushtaq Wani and Zubair Ahmad Lone by the Indian Army’s 2 Rashtriya Rifles Unit in the Lawaypora area of Srinagar.

“I would urge the Government of India and the administration of the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir to conduct an independent, impartial and thorough investigation of this encounter, which the families of the dead young men allege was a “fake encounter,” the letter reads.

“This allegation by the families of the deceased is further bolstered by the following information from recent media reports that none of the deceased had any police record or other record of being politically active and none of the deceased was listed in the police’s database of active militants.”

The letter written by O.P Shaw reads that: “Security personnel failed to make any effort to involve the families of the deceased to appeal to the alleged militants to surrender. Frequently, dying militants tend to call their family members in their final hours – it is quite extraordinary that none of the deceased attempted to contact their family members.”

“The residents of the relevant neighborhood contest the military’s assertion that the deceased were given several opportunities to surrender.”

O.P Shaw writes that the Government should also sympathetically consider the demand of the family members to be handed over the bodies of deceased persons.

“If we are to win back the hearts and minds of Kashmiris, “fake encounters” have to be completely eliminated and, therefore, it is impressed upon the Government of India and its security forces to thoroughly investigate any suspicious encounter and to ensure that in cases where the security forces have perpetrated illegal killings, justice is done in a timely manner,” the letter concludes. (KNT)