JKLF chief holds day-long fast to protest fake encounter

Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik on Thursday staged a day-long fast in Nadihal village of Baramulla district to protest the recent killing of three locals in a fake encounter on April 30 in Machil sector along the Line of Control.

Malik, along with scores of his supporters, traveled to north Kashmir's Nadihal village today morning to hold the protest fast.

Malik was received by hundreds of villagers who later joined him in the day-long fast.

The JKLF chairman said, "The security forces are resorting to such crimes to muzzle the voices of the freedom-seeking people of Kashmir." He demanded a high-level probe to investigate the encounter.

The authorities have already arrested a trooper of the Territorial Army and two civilians for luring the three youth to the Line of Control, after promising them jobs as porters for the Army, and then killing them to stage a fake encounter.

The army has ordered a high-level inquiry into the matter after receiving the police report. The state government has also ordered a high-level probe headed by the Kashmir divisional commissioner.