Srinagar: Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has expressed grief at the loss of lives at Khudwani, Kulgam on Wednesday. She has also paid tributes to the Army man who lost his life in the said incident.
The Chief Minister said there is an urgent need to get together to get Jammu and Kashmir out of this vicious cycle of violence and killings.
Mehbooba has conveyed her sympathies with the families of those killed and prayed for their eternal solace.
While expressing grief over civilian killings in Kulgam, the opposition National Conference said that Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti should ‘introspect and acknowledge the damage caused by the government’s anti-people policies.’
“It is time for PDP-BJP government and especially the chief minister to introspect and acknowledge the damage caused by their anti-people policies and actions throughout the state,” NC president Farooq Abdullah said, expressing profound grief and sorrow over the civilian killings in Kulgam.
Four civilians were killed in the clashes which erupted near the gunfight site in Khudwani. However the police in a statement said that the civilians were killed in ‘crossfire’.
The search operation at the gunfight site was called off by the forces after no bodies of the militants were recovered from the debris of the house which was blasted during the gunfight.
Earlier, forces said a search operation was launched to retrieve the militant bodies from the site. However, no militant bodies were recovered from the debris. Reports said that the militants managed to escape from the site.
Forces had earlier detonated the house in which the militants were trapped by using explosives, razing it to the ground. Two adjacent houses also caught fire. To fight the trapped militants, Army had even used helicopter gun ships.
