Srinagar, January 20 (KMS): In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the families of three youth killed by Indian troops in Lawaypora fake encounter last month have contested police claims about their kins’ involvement in militancy.
The reaction comes after Inspector General of Indian Police (IGP) Kashmir range, Vijay Kumar, claimed that ‘60 percent of data collected suggests involvement of three youth in the militancy’.
The families of two Pulwama youth held a protest at Bellow village demanding return of the bodies and fair probe in the case.
Mushtaq Ahmad Wani, the father of one of the martyred Athar Wani, contested the police claims that his son was involved in militancy. “It took the police 22 days to collect the 60 percent data to label my son as a militant. Athar was first killed and now police are searching for evidence whether he was innocent or not,” he said.
Mushtaq Wani said, “Collecting evidence is another drama,” and termed the whole process as “fake”. They (police) are trying to “mislead” people, he added.
Responding to claims of police for not returning the dead bodies of their kin due to Covid, Wani said if the police have a fear of law and order and Covid, they will bury their child at midnight. There will be minimum participation of people in the burial, he said.
Wani asked the administration to either return the body of his son in a week’s time or they will again stage a protest in Srinagar. “They should investigate the case within a week as police had already stated that no FIR or any adverse report was registered against them,” he said.
Bashir Ahmed Ganai, grandfather of another martyred youth Aijaz Maqbool Ganai from Patrigam Pulwama said that Aijaz was bed-ridden for more than a month. “How can a person who was bedridden for 35 days become a militant suddenly?” he questioned.
“If he was a militant then police could have arrested him at his home. He was innocent and was killed in cold blood. It is unfortunate that we are seeing such things,” Bashir Ganai said. He said family has only one demand to return Aijaz’s body and bury him at his ancestral graveyard, nothing else.
The three youth were martyred killed by Indian troops in a fake encounter at Lawaypora in Srinagar on December 30, 2020.
