Kin of slain Kashmir boys deny terror link

FAMILIES of two teenage boys and a young man killed in Indian Kashmir last Wednesday (30) by government forces during an alleged firefight have denied they were militants.

Police said the trio were killed in a 20-hour gun battle on the outskirts of the region’s main city of Srinagar after they were cornered inside a home last Tuesday (29).

“Repeated announcements were made to the hiding terrorists to lay down their illegal weapons and surrender,” police stated. “Instead, the hiding terrorists fired continuously upon the searching party.”

But relatives of the trio disputed the story and protested outside a police building in Srinagar where the bodies were being kept.

“Yesterday at 10 in the morning, he had tea with me,” Bashir Ahmad Ganai, the grandfather of one of the slain youths, Aijaz Maqbool, told reporters.

“We don’t know where he was picked up from and later killed. What is going on in Kashmir?” Ganai said.

The families of the other two – high school student Athar Mushtaq and carpenter Zubair – also insisted they were innocent. Parents said they had been on their way to receive private tutoring in Srinagar.

Police insisted two of them were “hardcore associates of terrorists” and the third might have recently joined rebel ranks. The exact ages of the three killed were not released.