Omar questions separatists' silence over killing of child

Srinagar, Jul 24 (PTI) India's northern state Jammu and
Kashmir's Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Friday questioned the
silence of separatist leaders over the barbaric killing of a
three-year-old boy and his father in Shopian in South Kashmir,
terming their stand as "hypocritical".

"Why are separatist leaders silent on this issue?" Omar
said while reacting to the killing of toddler Arif allegedly
by militants of Hizbul Mujahideen along with his father
yesterday in Shopian.

Aslam Awam was fired upon indiscriminately by Hizbul
militants and Arif was in his lap when the incident took
place.

Hizbul Mujahideen were on a lookout for Aslam and had
made an attempt on his life on the intervening night of April
14-15 also.

Though he managed to escape death, the militants killed
his 60-year-old mother Reshma.

"Where are Yasin Malik and other separatist leaders?
This is the worst form of hypocritical politics", the Chief
Minister said.

Omar said the situation would have been different, if
the child had been accidentally killed in firing by security
forces.

"There would have been long marches and separatist
leaders would have taken their positions on the streets. There
would have been 'Shopian chalo', 'Lal chowk' chalo calls,"
Omar said.

Separatist leader Yasin Malik chose to raise questions
over the people responsible for the incident and said there
were different versions about who was responsible for the
killing.

"There are different versions of the people on this
incident. Police version is that militants are involved. Local
version is surrendered militants are involved," Malik said.
Hizbul Mujahideen had issued a threat to Aslam claiming
him to be a police informer, a charge denied by his family as
well as by the police. PTI SKL
AM
NNNN

The information contained in this electronic message and any attachments to this
message are intended for the exclusive
use of the addressee(s) and may contain proprietary, confidential or privileged
information. If you are not the intended
recipient, you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please
notify the sender immediately and destroy
all copies of this message and any attachments contained in it.