J&K House witnesses fisticuffs over killings during post-Burhan unrest

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Assembly on Monday again witnessed ruckus after the Opposition demanded a judicial probe into the killings during the summer 2016 civil unrest in the Valley.

Opposition members led by Congress party senior leader and former minister Nawang Rigzin Jora stormed into the Well of the House. He said, “Ms. Mufti should take responsibility of the killings last year as Omar did in 2010. She is coward. There should be a judicial probe.”

Though the Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, announced that district-level Special Investigation Team (SIT) would inquire into the killings of civilians during the unrest, the Opposition was remained adamant on its demand that the government should constitute a judicial commission instead.

The Opposition members from Congress and the National Conference (NC) repeatedly clashed with those from the ruling BJP and PDP combine. NC’s Ali Mohmmad Sagar said that unlike then Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who owned up to the killings in 2010, Ms. Mufti “remained hidden”. He said a commission headed by a retired Supreme Court judge should look into the killings of 2016.

As the government gave cold shoulder to the Opposition’s demand, the NC and Congress members threw papers in the Well of the House and resorted to anti-government sloganeering and hooting. This was followed by verbal duels between the two sides. Some Opposition members also snatched the microphone from BJP lawmaker Ravinder Raina when he started speaking on the on motion of thanks on the Governor’s address to the joint sitting of the J&K Legislature which is currently in its budget session in winter capital Jammu, leading to a scuffle between the two sides.

The slogans which reverberated throughout included ‘Pellet sarkar, hai hai;, ‘Jamhooriyat ka qatal bund karo’, ‘Killer sarkar’ and ‘RSS sarkar’.