Killing of Sopore youth invites sharp criticism from political parties

SRINAGAR — Reacting sharply to the alleged custodial killing of a shopkeeper from Sopore on Wednesday, various political parties have expressed their displeasure and have demanded probe into it.

While National Conference (NC) has said that if encounters like Shopian in which three labourers from Rajouri were allegedly killed in fake encounter and now a youth from Sopore are allowed to continue, the administration cannot win the confidence of people, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has termed the youth’s killing as a reminder of how truth is mangled & stories are fabricated to justify innocent killings in Jammu and Kashmir.

All Parties Hurriyat Conference, on the other hand, has gone a step further to condemn the killing, by terming it a cold-blooded murder.

Former Chief Minister of erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir State and NC Vice President Omar Abdullah, while taking to micro-blogging social media site Twitter wrote, “The administration can’t possibly win back the confidence of the people if “encounters” like Shopian or suspicious deaths like Sopore are allowed to pass without the facts being established & guilt, when determined, fully punished. @manojsinha_ must intervene in both these cases”.

Daughter of incarcerated Mehbooba Mufti, former chief minister and PDP president, Iltija Mufti wrote on Twitter, “The cold blooded murder of 23 yr old Irfan Ahmed Dar, a shopkeeper by profession wrongfully accused of being OGW is a grim reminder of how truth is mangled & stories are fabricated to justify killing of innocent civilians in J&K.”

People’s Conference Supremo Sajad Lone, while expressing his dismay over the killing of Irfan Ahmed Dar wrote, “Sopore incident just doesn’t add up. They have done a bad job even at inventing a story. The guilty need to be punished.”

Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party also reacted sharply to the incident. In a statement issued here, Javid Beigh, spokesman of Apni Party demanded that the government must constitute an inquiry into the incident in order to ascertain the veracity of contradictory claims made by police and family of the deceased youth.

“Even if the claims of the police are true that the slain youth was an over ground worker who allegedly took advantage of darkness to escape and during search, his body was found at Tujjar-Sharief, the police cannot be absolved of its responsibility warranted under law. The circumstances which led to his death need to be probed in order to find the truth,” Baig added in his statement.

He urged the Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha to order a time bound probe, taking into account all the aspects of the unfortunate incident which has triggered a fresh wave of anger and alienation in the whole area.

“The claims made by police and the bereaved family into this unfortunate incident cannot be ascertained unless impartial investigations are conducted into this incident in a time bound manner,” Beigh demanded.

Meanwhile, APHC spokesman said that while the culprits of the recent Shopian fake encounter have still not been brought to book, as reported in media another cold blooded murder of a 24-year-old youth in custody Irfan Ahmed Dar from Sopore, who was arrested on the night of 14th and taken into police custody, is extremely sad and disturbing.

APHC in its statement said these extra judicial killings by the authorities that keep taking place in the valley at regular intervals to sustain the atmosphere of fear among people are condemnable to say the least.

APHC statement appealed to all rights bodies to take cognizance of these brazen human rights violations and bring the culprits to book.