Srinagar: Security forces on Saturday intensified search operations to track down the assailants who killed two migrant labourers in Kulgam district a day ago, even as the ruling National Conference and opposition People’s Democratic Party called for a thorough probe into the incident.
Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha chaired a high-level security review meeting at the Lok Bhavan here and directed the security forces to intensify precise and high-impact operations to neutralise terrorists.
The meeting was attended by senior officers of the civil administration and police, including Chief Secretary Atal Dullo, DGP Nalin Prabhat, Principal Secretary Home Department Chandraker Bharti, Divisional Commissioners, SSPs, and Deputy Commissioners.
The LG directed all the deputy commissioners and SSPs to conduct a comprehensive review of the Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs) established to protect labourers from outside Jammu and Kashmir, an official spokesperson said.
“We must intensify precise, high-impact anti-terror operations to neutralise the terrorists,” the LG said.
Sinha also directed that employers must ensure all workers from other states and UTs of the country are provided insurance and that their details are registered with local police and district authorities.
Sinha instructed authorities to ensure dignified last rites for the victims of the terror attack and to provide all the support to bereaved families.
Deepak Ratray and Bopinder, who were in their 20s and hailed from Chhattisgarh, were killed in the terrorist attack at a brick kiln in the Kelam area of south Kashmir’s Kulgam district late on Friday evening.
Officials said Ratray succumbed to his injuries before he could be taken to a hospital, while Bopinder was first taken to GMC Anantnag and later referred to the SKIMS Hospital in Soura, where he died during treatment.
The last rites of the deceased were performed at the Palpora area of the district in the presence of family members and senior officers from police and civil administration, officials said.
Friday’s attack comes close on the heels of the killing of a policeman on Amarnath Yatra duty in Anantnag district on July 22, following which over 3,000 overground workers were detained.
National Conference president Farooq Abdullah called for an investigation into the killing, indicating that such incidents happen in the Valley whenever a demand for statehood is raised.
“I regret it. We do not even know who killed them. There should be an investigation, a fair probe into who the killers are,” Abdullah told reporters in Baramulla district.
Questioning the timing of the incident, the three-time chief minister said, “I don’t know why such incidents happen whenever we seek statehood.”
PDP president Mehbooba Mufti told reporters here that the killings were the result of a “security lapse”.
“This cycle must stop. Despite heavy security presence, which causes so much agony for locals, such incidents happen. In my view, there was a lapse in security somewhere,” Mufti said, demanding a probe.
She said the LG administration, which looks after law and order in Jammu and Kashmir, needs to look into how the attack took place despite a large presence of security personnel deployed for the ongoing Amarnath Yatra.
Kashmir’s chief preacher Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and political parties have condemned the attack, terming it inhumane, barbaric and cowardly, and called for an end to violence.
