Police blame civilians for Kulgam deaths

Huge congregation entered encounter site before it was sanitised; separatists group terms it a ‘carnage’

A man stands near the encounter site at Larro in Kulgam on Sunday.

After six civilians were killed in a blast at a house in Kulgam after a pre-dawn operation by security forces on Sunday, a police spokesman said a large congregation entered the encounter site before sanitisation of the spot.

The police said they had seized arms and ammunition from the site and retrieved the bodies of Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) militants, identified as Shahid Ahmad Tantary, Zubair Ahmad Lone and Yazil Ahmad Makroo, ahead of the explosion.

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Three militants, 6 civilians killed in encounter in J&K’s Kulgam

 

“We appeal to people to refrain from going to encounter sites so that ammunition can be defused by the squad of the J&K police,” Additional Director-General Police Muneer Ahmad Khan said.

A JeM spokesman threatened to “avenge the deaths”. The separatists’ conglomerate, Joint Resistance Leadership, comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik, termed the incident a “carnage”, and called for a shutdown on Monday and a protest march on Tuesday.

 

“Governor Satya Pal Malik’s recent assertion that bullets, not flowers, will be showered has been proven true in Kulgam. A new trend of putting explosive mines under the rubble of burntdown houses is aimed at killing civilians. The criminal silence of the international community is unfortunate,” said a JRL spokesman, quoting the trio.

The Army on Sunday foiled an infiltration bid in Jammu’s Sunderbani area and killed two infiltrators. However, three soldiers were also killed in the operation.

“A fierce encounter with heavily armed militants very close to the Line of Control (LoC) in Sunderbani sector took place at about 1.45 p.m. A patrol killed two intruders and recovered warlike stores, including two AK-47 rifles. Three soldiers were also killed,” said a Jammu-based Army spokesman.

He said that one soldier with grave injuries was evacuated to the Army Command hospital, Udhampur, “where his condition is reported to be stable”.

The deceased soldiers were identified as havildar Kaushal Kumar, lance naik Ranjeet Singh, and rifleman Rajat Kumar Basan.

‘Deep anguish’

Political parties, including the National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party, expressed concern over the civilian killings at the encounter site in Kulgam.

K. Vijay Kumar, Adviser to the Governor, and Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbag Singh, in a joint statement, expressed their deep anguish over the loss of civilian lives.

They asked civilians to avoid visiting the encounter sites.

An Army spokesman expressed “heartfelt condolences to bereaved families”.