Political leaders, cutting across party lines, criticised the lynching of a police officer in Srinagar on Friday. While Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti described it as as “shameful” incident, Opposition leader Omar Abdullah called it a tragedy.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a wreath laying ceremony for Mohammad Ayub Pandith, Mufti said, “Jammu and Kashmir police is one of the best police forces in the country.” She added that the forces were “showing maximum restraint” while dealing with the people of the Valley. “The day their patience wanes away, then, I believe, things will be difficult. I appeal to the people that there is still time and we should understand. The police force is our own force, they are our children,” she said, according to PTI.

National Conference leader Abdullah, who also attended Pandith’s wreath laying ceremony, strongly criticised the lynching on Twitter. “His death is a tragedy and the manner of his death a travesty. May the people who lynched DySP Pandith burn in hell for their sins,” he tweeted.

Meanwhile, moderate Hurriyat Conference chief Mirwaiz Umar Farooq also disapproved of the incident. “We cannot allow state brutality to snatch our humanity,” he said.

The Narendra Modi government has called the murder an “irreligious act in the name of religion.” “Most unholy act in holy month of Ramzan. Lynching a fellow being,” Union Minister of State Jitendra Singh tweeted.

Pandith was stoned to death by a mob after he allegedly opened fire on a group of people that had caught him taking photographs near Jamia Masjid. Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police SP Vaid said two people had been arrested and a third had been identified.