Hyderpora Encounter: Families of slain call police version as a ‘fairy tale’

SRINAGAR — The family members of slain building owner Altaf Ahmed Bhat and Dr Mudasir Gul on Wednesday rejected the SIT probe of police, stating that “it seems a fairy tale” and adding that Altaf was tortured and killed while as Dr Gul’s family urged police to show them CCTV footage where slain doctor is ferrying the foreign militant.

“SIT probe is totally false. I reject it. My brother had severe torture marks on his body. How come he was made a human shield as claimed by police when 2000 security forces personnel were present on the spot,” Abdul Majeed Bhat, while reacting to SIT probe, told news agency Kashmir News Observer (KNO). He said they don’t buy the police version as it seems a “well drafted tale.”

Similarly, Humaira Gul, the wife of Dr Mudasir Gul, also rejected police claims, stating that the truth was either known those who were killed or to those who killed them. “My point is that my husband was a doctor by profession and why would he put his family – little daughter, wife and parents – at a stake for nothing. His character is an open book and his friends and I, as his wife, know what kind of a person my husband was,” she told KNO, adding that police must show them the CCTV footage where Dr Gul is allegedly ferrying foreign militant Bilal Bhat.

Pertinently, SIT incharge DIG Central Kashmir Sujit Kumar Singh yesterday told media men that Altaf Bhat was made a human shield by the foreign militant Bilal Bhai, while Dr Gull was killed by foreign militant and that Amir Magray of Ramban was also a militant who was killed in the encounter.

The Hyderpora encounter took place on November 15 in which four persons — a foreign militant Bilal Bhai, a youth from Ramban Amir Magray, building owner Altaf Bhat and Dr Mudasir Gul were killed. The bodies of Bhat and Dr Gul were exhumed after three days from Handwara graveyard and handed over to their families for burial.