Srinagar: Families of youths, killed in an 'encounter' by security forces in the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir staged a protest and demanded bodies of their slain sons.
Three youths 24-year-old Ajaz Maqbool Ganai from Putrigam Pulwama, 22-year-old Zubair Ahmad Lone from Turkawangam Shopian and Athar Muhstaq Wani, 16, from Below Pulwama, were killed on December 31 at Lawaypora.
Amid snowfall, the family of Athar Mushtaq Wani had travelled from South Kashmir's Pulwama district to Srinagar. “We want justice. Our son was innocent. We demand his body so that we can bury him in our ancestral graveyard. How can his father travel 120 kilometres to pray for him?" Muhammad Shafi Wani, uncle of Athar Mushtaq Wani, said.
“They have snatched everything from me. Now nothing is left with me. Kill me in an encounter also and bury me along with them,” Mushtaq Ahmad Wani, father of the 16-year-old youth Athar.
Major General H S Sahi, who is General Officer Commanding, Kilo Force, had said on Wednesday that the three were militants who were planning an attack on security forces in Srinagar. The families have maintained that their slain sons were not militants and were killed in a fake encounter in Srinagar.
Police in a statement said that they were not in the militant list and had provided logistic support to militants. “If they were involved in militancy, please prove to us. It is not the case that you have become court, judge and jury. Bodies are properties of families as clearly elucidated in International and human rights laws. Why are you afraid of handing over dead bodies," a Sikh social activist, Angat Singh, who was part of the protesting family, said.
Meanwhile, PDP president and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has supported the families and urged the Lieutenant Governor to intervene and hand over bodies of the three slain youth to their bereaved families.
"Such tactics won’t help and it will widen the gap that is already deeply widened between people of Kashmir and New Delhi. How long will New Delhi suppress the people of Kashmir on gunpoint and how long will you make people hostage? Not handing over the bodies to their bereaved families is against religion and humanity,” she said.
National Conference (NC) Vice president and former chief minister Omar Abdullah tweeted "The LG has promised a fair and speedy probe into this encounter when Hasnain Masoodi, Lok Sabha member spoke to him about it recently. In the interim, we hope the LG will order the handing over of the bodies to the families.
In another tweet, he said,'' It is very important that the probe into this encounter be concluded at the earliest. Only a fair and transparent probe, already promised by Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha will satisfy the families who have lost their loved ones who they insist were innocent."
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