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Handwara on boil, probe ordered Srinagar, February 23 Amid a complete shutdown in the area, hundreds of agitated residents, with the bodies of those killed, blocked the main road at Kulangam leading from Srinagar to the district headquarters of Kupwara. The residents raised anti-government slogans and blamed the government and security forces for the murder of innocent children. The bodies of the four boys were kept on the main road stopping traffic on the only link to the district headquarters, while the demonstrators demanded the visit of the Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to the town and asked him to take cognisance of the killings. The incident, according to the demonstrators, had taken place within 15 minutes after the Chief Minister had addressed a public meeting at Kupwara on Wednesday. Incidentally, the CM has already ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident. Sensing trouble, the police swung into action and prevented several separatist leaders from visiting the town today. The APHC chairman, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who claimed to have been kept under house arrest here today, addressed a press conference and expressed concern over the alleged human rights violations in the valley. The APHC leader, Bilal Lone, and senior separatist leader, Shabir Ahmad Shah, were held in Srinagar to prevent them from going to Handwara. Mr Geelani has called for a two-day strike to protest the human rights violations, particularly killing of the four boys in Handwara, and also the incidents of attacks on religious places at the behest of vested interests in Iraq. The moderate faction of the APHC has also called for a strike against the two incidents tomorrow. The Defence spokesman said here that acting on a specific information about the presence of two militants hiding in the Chak Dudipora village, about four km from Handwara, the troops launched a search operation on Wednesday afternoon. "However, before the troops could reach and cordon off the area, terrorist opened fire on the Army column," he added. He added that in a normal cordon and search operation, the Army first establishes cordon and launches operation only after evacuating the villagers. In this particular case, this was not possible because the terrorists opened fire indiscriminately using grenade launchers which resulted in the brutal killing of innocent civilians. The spokesman claimed that the militants specifically targeted Abdul Samad Mir, alias Rahil, a known over-ground worker of Lashkar-e -Taiba who was booked earlier by the police and released only in September 2005, alongwith Shaikh Alam, both aged 20 years, presuming that these two would provide information to the Army about the location of the hiding terrorists. Both Samad Mir and Shaikh Alam were killed on the spot. In the exchange of fire, Hassan aged 21 years, and Amir Hajjam, aged 10 years, also got injured and succumbed to their injuries while being taken to the hospital. In this operation, two Army jawans also sustained injuries and had been evacuated to the Army hospital. He added that the militants managed to escape taking advantage of the confusion. |
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