Farooq Abdullah writes to Prez seeking judicial probe in Hyderpora encounter

Abdullah, who is also the head of the People's alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), has asked President Ram Nath Kovind to order a time-bound judicial probe into the incident in which four persons, including a foreign militant, his local associate and two businessmen were killed.

In his letter Abdullah said, "The tragic incident that took place at Hyderpora area of Srinagar on Monday evening has evoked enormous public anger.

"In this unfortunate incident three civilians got killed in suspicious circumstances. The incident calls for a time-bound judicial probe so that true facts are unraveled and brought in the public domain.

"Needless to state that such unfortunate incidents widen the gulf between the people of Jammu and Kashmir and the Government of India and, therefore, are to be avoided at any cost.

"We would remind Your Excellency that the administration of Jammu and Kashmir is being run in the name of Your Excellency by the Lt. Governor acting as an agent and, therefore, an onerous responsibility is placed on Your Excellency to ensure that the rule of law prevails and the involved erring officials are brought to book and punished under law."

After a public outrage over the encounter, authorities on Thursday night handed over the bodies of two civilians, Altaf Ahmad Bhat and Dr Mudasir Gul, who were killed in the Hyderpora encounter on Monday evening, to their families for the last rites.