J&K governor Satya Pal Malik orders inquiry into BJP leader's killing

Hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the assassination of BJP leader Ghulam Mohammad Mir, J&K governor Satya Pal Malik ordered a probe into the political killing, also mandating a look into the security agencies' lapses to ensure the safety of political activists.

Unimpressed, Jammu and Kashmir BJP on Sunday demanded a CBI probe and alleged that the authorities had arbitrarily withdrawn Mir's security despite the terrorists' threats.

Late on Saturday evening, terrorists stormed BJP district vice-president Mir's Nowgam house in Anantnag and shot him dead. The 60-year-old had unsuccessfully contested 2008 and 2014 assembly elections from Dooru constituency.

"Strongly condemn the killing of @BJP4JnK leader Ghulam Mohammed Mir...There is no place for such violence in our country," the PM had tweeted.

Following this, the governor asked the chief secretary to conduct an inquiry into the killings of political workers. "Governor Satya Pal Malik has directed chief secretary BVR Subrahmanyam to get an inquiry conducted into the killings of political people belonging to various political parties in the state in the last few months," said a Raj Bhavan spokesman.

However, J&K state BJP spokesperson Altaf Thakur stated, "We want a CBI inquiry into the incident. Mir's security was withdrawn despite being on the terrorists' hitlist. We had been writing to authorities to provide security to him, but it fell on deaf ears."

Former chief minister Omar Abdullah also jumped on to the bandwagon and released a letter that his party general secretary had written to the Election Commission about the state government decision to withdraw security of political leaders.