FRESH WOUNDS

The Hyderpora killings are a wakeup call for the BJP

- TARIQ BHAT

ON NOVEMBER 15, at around 4:30pm, security forces launched a search operation at a commercial building in upscale Hyderpora, Srinagar.

“A joint team of the police, 2 Rashtriya Rifles of the Army and the Central Reserve Police Force have launched an operation on a ‘specific input’about the presence of terrorists in an illegal call centre rented for business in a private building,”said a police statement.

Hours later, four people were declared killed in the encounter. Among them were building owner Altaf Ahmed Bhat and tenant Dr Mudasir Gul, a dentist-turned-real-estate-contractor with an office on the first floor of the building. The initial police statement called them ‘terrorist associates’.

Inspector-General of Police Vijay Kumar said the other two casualties were a foreign militant called Bilal Bhai or Haider, and his associate Amir Ahmed, from Banihal in Jammu’s Ramban district.

A more detailed police statement followed. “In order to show the suspect call centre in the building, the owner of the building, Altaf Ahmed Bhat, as well as the tenant, Mudasir Ahmad Gul, were called to accompany the search party,” it said. “As the search party approached a room on the top floor of the building, the hiding terrorists started firing indiscriminately towards the party, which retaliated. In the initial exchange of fire, both individuals accompanying the search party received critical gunshot injuries and succumbed to their injuries. In the ensuing encounter, both terrorists hiding in the room were eliminated and their bodies were retrieved from the site of the encounter.