Govt buckled down under pressure, want to put Shopian incident in cold storage: Omar

Ang: Alleging that the Jammu and Kashmir government has put the Shopian firing incident into cold storage, former chief minister Omar Abdullah said that the current regime has buckled down under pressure on the issue of filing an FIR against Army officer in the incident.
The remark by Mr Abdullah, who is the working president of main opposition National Conference (NC), comes days after the Supreme Court (SC) stopped further investigation in the January 27 firing incident that left three civilians dead.
Reacting to the state government’s submission in the SC, Mr Abdullah said he was surprised over what it has said in the apex court. “Everyone has access to FIR copy now a day’s … and everyone know what was written in it. It is not something which is a secret. We live in an age of social media, I was surprised over what the government said in the apex court,” Mr Abdullah told reporters in south Kashmir district of Anantnag.
Questioning the commitment of the Chief Minister on the issue, Mr Abdullah accused Mehbooba Mufti of changing statements over the FIR in the civilian killings. “The Chief Minister had made commitment inside the state Assembly. What will happen to it? She made the commitment not just once, but twice that FIR will be taken to its logical conclusion. But, totally different thing was said in Supreme Court. Certainly state government has come under pressure to put this incident into cold storage,” he said.
Demanding an impartial investigation into the incident, he said the statements made by the Army and state government are contradicting each other.
Therefore, he said the people of the valley want to know the truth. “We want an impartial investigation into the incident so that people will come to know what exactly happened on that day. If someone has made a mistake, he should be brought to the book,” he added.
The state government has recently informed the Supreme Court that Major Aditya was not named in the FIR. Father of Maj Aditya has challenged FIR against his son.
‘Shopian killings a setback, civilian killings must stop’, Says Dineshwar Sharma
Srinagar: Central Government’s special representative on dialogue in Jammu & Kashmir Dineshwar Sharma has described the Shopian killings as a setback and asserted that government forces must show restraint in Kashmir valley and civilian killings must end.
“Civilian killings must stop. The security forces must show restraint and not resort to disproportionate firing,’’ Sharma told The Hindustan Times in an interview.
“I was hoping for a better summer but violence has come as a setback. Amongst the districts in south Kashmir, Shopian is particularly alienated and angry. We must be sensitive while dealing with the people of Kashmir,’’ Sharma, a former Intelligence Bureau chief, added.
Sharma was appointed as a ‘special representative’ by the New Delhi on October 23 last year to hold a “sustained dialogue” with all stakeholders, and has made several visits to Jammu and Kashmir, including one in late February to Shopian, where three civilians were killed by Army bullets on January 27, and four were shot dead along with two militants on March 4.