Slain cop’s Facebook post haunts Kashmir

a chronicle of his death foretold, Feroz Ahmed Dar wrote, “Just imagine...yourself in your grave. Down there in that dark hole...Alone.”

The 32-year-old Jammu and Kashmir police officer was buried on Friday night in the family’s ancestral graveyard in Dogripora village in Pulwama district, with many from the village and his department bidding him a tearful farewell.

Dar and five other policemen were killed on Friday when suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants ambushed a police party in Anantnag’s Achabal area. The militants also tried to disfigure the faces of the policemen before walking away with their weapons.

As his family and friends prepared for the last journey, Dar’s words written on January 18, 2013, came back to haunt. “Did you ever stop for a while and asked yourself, what is going to happen to me the first night in my grave? Think about the moment your body is being washed and prepared to your grave.

“Think about the day people will be carrying you to your grave And your families crying ...think about the moment you are put in your grave,” he had written on his Facebook wall.

As Dogripora mourned its hero, his premonition of death echoed from his “first night” in the grave.

Villagers queued up outside Dar’s home to offer their condolences. His two daughters — sixyear-old Addah and two-yearold Simran — watched bewildered. His wife Mubeena Akthar and aged parents wailed and beat their chests, trying to come to terms with the loss.

Nicknamed Dabang by his friends , Dar had wished earnestly for the situation in Kashmir to return to normal. “Oh God! when will be the day we see normal Kashmir,” he had written on Facebook in 2013.