Amid controversy over Lawaypora encounter, J&K Police releases videos of surrender calls

As questions swirl around the Lawaypora encounter, in which three terrorists were killed recently, the Jammu and Kashmir police on Monday released two of its videos showing the forces making fervent appeals asking the holed-up terrorists to surrender.

Jammu and Kashmir Police along with Indian Army is seen trying every trick in the book in order to convince three holed up young terrorists to come out of the house and surrender but had to launch an operation as appeals failed to break the deadlock.

"You are being given a chance to surrender. Leave the weapons and come out. We assure you that you won't be harmed. Hands up and come out. We want to save your lives," the personnel, not visible shouts in the 'video I'.

"Do you want to surrender? If you want to surrender then drop your weapons, strip your clothes and come to the ground (backside)," the personnel shouts in 'Video II'.

Videos posted by Kashmir Zone Police:

The videos have been released after the families of the killed said that their wards were not terrorists and were killed in staged encounters and several political parties including BJP demanded a probe into the encounter.

These videos are likely to vindicate the Jammu and Kashmir Police and Army's version of the 'encounter' that terrorists were given ample chances to surrender before neutralizing them.

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'Why didn’t they surrender?: IGP Police, Kashmir Range

Inspector-General of Police, Kashmir range, Vijay Kumar while speaking with Republic Media Network, said, "As per the SOP, (and also seen in the video that we released today), terrorists were repeatedly appealed by the troops to surrender in the evening and again in the morning too. However, instead of surrendering, they fired upon troops and eventually got neutralized in a firefight."

"If they (terrorists) were innocent why didn’t they surrender despite repeated appeals?" asked IGP Kashmir, Kumar.

Meanwhile, the families of three youth who were killed in the 'encounter' at Lawaypora on Monday staged a demonstration at Press Enclave at Srinagar, demanding a fair investigation and return of bodies of the trio.

However, five family members of each neutralized terrorist had already attended the burial in presence of magistrate and police as per the SOP. Police sources say the department has also done videography of the whole process of burial.

Pertinently, the anti-terror operation began late in the evening on Saturday (December 29) and ended over at 11.30 am the next day, with the killing of all the three terrorists. During the search operation, one AK-47 rifle and two pistols, ammunition and other incriminating material along with some documents were recovered.

Two of the terrorists were identified as Ajaz Maqbool Ganie and Ather Mushtaq, both residents of Pulwama, while the third was Zubair Lone, a resident of Shopian.

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Meanwhile, JKNC leader Omar Abdullah tweeted: