Hyderpora Encounter Case: J&K SIT Says All 4 Slain Linked to Terror, Give Clean Chit to Armed Forces

The special investigation team of Jammu and Kashmir Police probing the controversial Hyderpora encounter case has said all the four slain persons, including two businessmen, were linked to terror in one way or another. This charge has been refuted by the families.

Gupkar Alliance and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti has also contended the SIT findings and called them a “concocted cover-up” to absolve those involved. Mufti as well as families of the slain persons have demanded a judicial inquiry in the matter.

On the conclusion of its six-week investigations, the SIT gave a clean chit to the armed forces who took part in November 15 encounter. Police said while two persons, Bilal Bhai and Aamir Magray, were terrorists, the third person, Dr Mudassir Gul, was a terror associate and the fourth person, a building owner called Altaf Ahmad Bhat, hid information about the presence of a militant in his building.

Head of the SIT Sujit Kumar, who is also DIG for central Kashmir range, said Bilal Bhai was killed when he and Magray tried fleeing from the building. He said Bilal had earlier shot Dr Gul on the attic of the building after learning that he “probably provided inputs to security forces about him”.

He said Bhat was killed in cross-firing when Bilal and Magray used him as a human shield to escape.

Kumar said police conducted the operation, along with the army’s 2 Rashtriya Rifles and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and that he was not solely heading the operation and, hence, there was no conflict of interest.

Kumar claimed that Dr Gul and Magray initially “feigned ignorance” when asked about the presence of a militant in the building. “Aamir initially said he did not have a phone, but later his phone was found inside the building,” the DIG said, adding that he was allowed first to go out of the building and then asked to come back to check if anyone was hiding in the building.

He said the SIT has asked Bhat’s family to produce rent documents or mode of payment of the rent, but they have not returned to the police with the required papers. He refuted the family’s claim that Bhat was made to search the building on three occasions. “In fact, he volunteered to check the building and even refused to wear a bulletproof vest,” Kumar said.

On Magray, he said there was footage and “other technical evidence” that suggested he had accompanied the foreign militant during an earlier attack in Jamalata area of Srinagar where a cop was targeted.

“Aamir would often travel to Bandipora and Gurez and smoke cigarettes,” he said.

While the bodies of Bhat and Dr Gul were exhumed on November 18 and handed over to their families for the last rites after public outcry, police refused to do so in the case of Magray.

Lieutenant general Manoj Sinha, meanwhile, has received the report of the magistrate inquiry ordered by him. Sinha had said those found guilty will not be spared. The findings of the inquiry are yet to be made public.

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