Families protest, reject Kashmir IGP’s claims

Families and relatives of the three youths who were killed in a ‘questionable’ encounter by security forces in Srinagar on December 30, protested in south Kashmir’s Pulwama on Tuesday, a day after Kashmir police chief Vijay Kumar claimed that they will soon convince the youths’ parents of their involvement in militancy with “concrete evidence”.

The family members of Athar Mushtaq and Ajaz Maqbool from Pulwama and Zubair Ahmad from Turkawangam in Shopian demanded justice and sought return of their bodies.

Mushtaq Ahmad, father of Athar, insisted that the trio was innocent and rejected the claims of IGP Vijay Kumar that they have “60%” proof that the three youths were involved in militancy. “Twenty-two days have passed and they are saying 60% documents are ready and the rest is being done. This is fake (claim) and being done for the public (image). Today, this happened with us, tomorrow this fire will engulf the entire Kashmir,” he said.

On Monday, Kumar had said the trio’s involvement was — “almost 60%” — proved. “According to the metadata we have collected so far, all the three associates who were killed in the encounter were involved in militancy. They were providing logistic support (to militants). We want to take a few more days so that we collect all the evidence which we will show to their parents first to convince them of their children’s involvement,” Kumar had told reporters in Srinagar.

Police and army have said the trio were killed in exchange of fire at Hokersar-Lawaypora in Srinagar after they refused to surrender. Their families have rebutted the claim of security forces and said that they were civilians. Athar was a Class-11 student, Aijaz was pursuing graduation while Zubair was a skilled worker, according to their families.

Ahmad said they will continue to raise their voices against the “tyranny”. “The killers have to be brought to book. I will not hesitate to go to the Supreme Court,” he said. “I will wait for a week and after that, I will take my life at Lal Chowk. This case should be investigated before that,” he added.

Ahmad claimed that police had given their report that the three neither had any FIR registered against them nor were they involved in any case. “Today, they are saying that they were over ground workers of militants, tomorrow they will claim that they were terrorists,” he added. Since the pandemic, the authorities had been burying the bodies of militants far away from their homes only allowing a few family members to be part of the burial arranged by the police. Kumar had on Monday refused to entertain the pleas of families to return the bodies saying if they handed over the bodies of militants or associates, people get emotional and attend the funerals in thousands.