DSP lynched: Mehbooba warns Kashmiris against testing limits of security forces

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday called the mob lynching of a police officer Mohammad Ayub Pandit outside the Jama Masjid in downtown Srinagar as "shameful". She also warned people of severe backlash if the police loses its patience while saying that Jammu and Kashmir police is one of the best police forces in the country that show maximum restraint. "What can be more shameful than this (lynching of officer). I want to say that J-K police is one of the best police forces in the country, they are brave but they are showing maximum restraint (while dealing with law and order situation) because they feel that they are dealing with their own people in J-K. "But, for how long? she told reporters on the sidelines of a wreath-laying ceremony of the slain officer here. "The day their patience wanes away, then, I believe, things will be difficult.I appeal the people that there is still time and we should understand.The police force is our own force, they are our children and such a treatment is shameful," the Chief Minister said. Mufti laid a wreath on the body of Pandit at the district police lines here. She then said: "The murder of this officer is actually a murder of trust. "He had allowed his security guards to go home so that they could observe 'Shab-e-Qadr' at their own mosques. "He went to perform his duty to protect people whose goodwill he trusted and it is this trust which has been murdered. A mob attacked Deputy Superintendent of Police Mohammed Mohammad Ayub Pandith when he was coming out of the mosque after checking access control. Mehbooba said the officer had not gone to the mosque for personal work but was there to protect the lives of the people and fulfil his duty. "A SHO along with five cops was killed some days back and now this DySP...I appeal to the people that this is a shameful incident, that those who protect you, show patience while dealing with you, but if you behave like this with them, then if they lose their patience, then God forbid, such a time will come when people have to flee after seeing a (police) gypsy on the road," she said.