Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti Thursday said that she was not aware about the presence of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani inside the house in Kokernag on July 8 when the encounter took place.“What I heard from army and police was that they knew three militants were hiding in some house (in Kokernag village), but were not knowing who they were,” Mehboob told reporters after chairing the PDP’s foundation day at party headquarters near Municipal Park here.“How is it possible that you (Chief Minister) would know everything about every encounter?” she asked.Asked if the government would have known about Burhan’s presence, what would have been its reaction, she said, “If we would have known may be security forces might have given him one chance at a time when situation was improving.”
The Chief Minister seemed to suggest that had anyone known that Wani was at the hideout, the government would have made proper arrangements to prevent the situation "from turning to what it is today" after his death.She said the present government didn’t get the time to prepare security measures unlike the previous government which handled the aftermath of hanging of Afzal Guru without much damage. “Our government did not have the luxury of time to prepare and prevent widespread violence in the aftermath of the Hizbul Mujahideen commander's killing. (Former CM) Omar Abdullah had enough time to prepare security measures when parliament attack convict Afzal Guru was hanged in New Delhi in February 2013,” Mehbooba said.Mehbooba added that “we imposed curfew so that youths don’t come out (of their homes). But youths moved to other areas and people took them inside (security forces) camps.”On the use of pellet guns, she said that the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has expressed his seriousness in considering other alternatives for crowd control. (KNS)