Larmi alleges indiscriminate, brute use of force on civilians.
National Conference Sunday condemned the killing of two civilians in an encounter between militants and Army at Frisal Kulgam and demanded an impartial and time bound probe into the killing.
In a statement issued, District President Kulgam and MLA Homshalibugh Adv. Ab Majeed Bhat Larmi lashed out at the forces for resorting to indiscriminate and brute force resulting in death of two civilians and injuries to scores out of which two have been grievously injured.
While expressing condolences with the family of the civilian killed at the encounter site Larmi said, “No amount of apology from administration can bring the two civilians back. They didn’t deserve to die and therefore it is necessary for the government to identify and punish those who are responsible for the killings.”
The legislator ridiculed the recent assurances of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti that civilians will be secured in such times. He asked why the forces were not following the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). “SOP has been confined to papers and rhetoric. It is clear that the forces resorted to indiscriminate use of force and a killing spree,” he said.
He said that the fact scores of other civilians were injured, many of them seriously, is a testimony that the “promise of restraint” that the government uses in its rhetoric is just a prank to be fool Kashmiris. He alleged that forces not just used indiscriminate shells and pellet guns on people in the area but also damaged their properties. “Even hospitals have not been spared where forces resorted to indiscriminate shelling within the hospital premises.”
It is therefore demanded that the administration immediately constitutes an independent and time bound inquiry team to put the facts right into “how and why the civilians was killed”.
He alleged that bullet hit protestors prove that forces fired with the intent to kill. “Were the pellets and tear gas shells not enough that they (forces) resorted to firing?”
Demanding that the entire circumstances in which forces fired on civilians be brought to light and those responsible for killing innocents and maiming them with injuries be brought to book. “It cannot go on forever. Forces cannot get into a spree of killing and get away with it,” he said. (KNS)