Antony assures Omar of action against guilty in Sopore killing

The army has been pulled up for not cooperating with the civilian authorities, which probed the killing of two civilians in Sopore town of North Kashmir and found two army personnel guilty of it.

The army has been pulled up for not cooperating with the civilian authorities, which probed the killing of two civilians in Sopore town of North Kashmir and found two army personnel guilty of it.

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Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah met Defence Minister A K Antony on Tuesday and informed him about the anger among the people in Sopore over the killing on February 22, an incident that had sparked widespread protests in the valley.

Antony assured Omar that action would be taken against the guilty and ordered completion of the army's in-house inquiry into the incident in a time-bound manner, official sources said.

Omar, while appreciating the work of the army in bringing down the violence level by nabbing terrorists, said such incidents did trigger resentment among the public and the personnel needed utmost restraint during anti-militancy operations, the sources said.

The Army had refused to join the inquiry conducted by the Jammu and Kashmir government into the killing of saying such a probe was not valid.

The inquiry, initiated by the Chief Minister, had blamed the army personnel present at the site for the encounter and for not verifying the claims of their informers before shooting down the innocents.