Srinagar: Peoples Conference president Sajad Gani Lone on Wednesday sought Prime Minister’s personal intervention in ensuring justice to the families of Altaf Bhat and Dr. Mudasir Gul killed in the Hyderpora encounter.
“There are two versions of reality. The first was that there were no terrorists and those who have been killed were innocent non-combatants. The second version put forward by the state government suggests that all of them were actively or passively involved in terror activities. A neutral institution would be the perfect mode to decide where reality lies,” Lone said in a statement.
“Assuming the first version of reality is true and that the killed people are innocent, the state administration would in that case have to introspect that not only have they killed innocent people but taken away from the family members of the deceased, the humblest of all liberties in the world and that is the liberty to grieve, liberty to ululate,” he said.
Asserting that the total opaqueness and dreadful silence displayed by the administration has created a perception of denial of justice, Lone said that this incident deserves the personal intervention of the Prime Minister to ensure justice is delivered.
“In the current case, and any unfortunate cases in the future we want to render unsolicited advice — an advice which we believe is essential in bringing peace and laying the foundation for dignified coexistence.
“The assumption that a uniformed person cannot err is the root cause of all the problems. We are deluding ourselves into believing that a few meters of cloth of a particular color can make a person infallible. Beneath the uniform is a human-being and one of the essential traits of the human-being is that he or she is prone to errors,” Lone said.
“Institutions are as prone to errors as humans. We appeal to the Prime Minister to please intervene and ensure that justice is delivered. The total opaqueness and dreadful silence displayed by the administration has created a perception of denial of justice,” he added.
Lone further stated that we can’t have a situation in a democracy where grieving is a luxury, where the freedom to touch and feel the lifeless body of a husband or a father becomes a distant dream.
“Let grieving not become a luxury. Countries don’t become great by denials. Their greatness is measured by their moral courage in accepting wrongs. We believe that the state administration should have absolutely no objection in allowing a neutral institution to investigate what actually happened at the encounter site.
“Civilized nations do not, cannot and should not operate in a state of impunity. If a mistake has been made, it has to be accepted. We can’t have a situation where the cruel gets crueler to cover up supposed follies,” he said
Appealing to the PM for his intervention, Lone said that the Prime Minister is the guardian of all inhabitants of this country irrespective of caste, color, religion, geography or ideology and has the responsibility to ensure justice is delivered to the daughters and families of the deceased.
“The reality as it exists is that the Prime Minister ‘is the Prime Minister and the guardian of those who were killed’; ‘is the Prime Minister and the guardian of those who killed them’; and ‘is the Prime Minister and guardian of those left behind and not able to grieve their dead’,” Lone said.
“Those seeking justice from you (PM) apart from others are two teenage daughters, a one-year-old daughter and an old father with an appreciable record in anti-militant operations. We hope justice will prevail,” he concluded.
