Police says two freedom fighters martyred in crossfire
\n SRINAGAR
\nTwo men martyred alongside a pair of freedom fighters in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) were gunned down in \u201ccold blood\u201d by security forces, a relative of one of the dead said on Tuesday.
\nAccording to police, two freedom fighters were martyred the night before during a shootout inside a commercial centre in Srinagar. The building\u2019s owner Mohammad Altaf Bhat and tenant Mudasir Ahmed also died in \u201ccrossfire\u201d, the police added.
\nWhile police had earlier claimed that Bhat was connected to the martyred freedom fighters, his niece Saima Bhat said her uncle and Ahmed were civilians who had been murdered in \u201ccold blood\u201d.
\nSaima, a journalist in Srinagar, said that there was no gunfight the night her uncle was killed. \u201cHe was taken… as a human shield and when they couldn\u2019t find anything, he was killed there,\u201d she told Kashmirwala, a local newspaper.
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\nInspector general of police Vijay Kumar had said that both Bhat and Ahmed were working as \u201cterror associates\u201d. \u201c#Terrorists have been hiding on top floor of his building,\u201d he was quoted as saying in a statement issued on Twitter late Monday.
\nEyewitnesses said army troops and police cordoned off the area on Monday evening, confiscating dozens of phones from shopkeepers and passersby.
\n\u201cThey later took Mohammad Altaf inside the building for a search and Mudasir also accompanied the soldiers,\u201d an eyewitness told AFP on condition of anonymity, fearing police reprisals.
\nPolice did not return the bodies of Bhat and Ahmed to their families, instead burying them without relatives present in the middle of the night.
\nThe Peoples Democratic Party called for a \u201cspeedy investigation\u201d into the murder claims. \u201cLeast (police) could do is hand over the dead body to the family for a decent burial. Are even dead ones a threat to peace now?\u201d the party wrote on Twitter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Police says two freedom fighters martyred in crossfire SRINAGAR Two men martyred alongside a pair of freedom fighters in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) were gunned down in \u201ccold blood\u201d by security forces, a relative of one of the dead said on Tuesday. According to police, two freedom fighters were martyred the night […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227983,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-227964","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n