On Sunday Imran Ahmad war was killed in a gunfight in Yaripora area of south Kashmir’s Kulgam district. A police official said that at around 5:45 am, army’s 34 RR and special operation group (SOG) of J&K police launched a cordon and search operation in Munad-Suraso villages following specific input about the presence of militants.
Imran Ahmad Dar, murdered cold blooded during the encounter but the father claims that their son was not a militant, neither had any links with them. Speaking to media, Zahid Qayoom Dar, the brother of slain youth said, that Imran had no connection with militancy. “He had an argument with the family a few days back and stayed with his friends in the same village”, he said.
Abdul Qayoom Dar, the father of Imran, last saw his son, on July 20 near a fuel station, barely 500 meters from their residence in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district.
“If my son was a militant, why was he allowed to roam around freely? He even celebrated Eid with us and distributed the mutton of the sacrificial sheep,” said Abdul, unable to hold back tears.
“He was killed in a staged encounter. They should now at least return his body so that we can perform his last rites,” Dar added.
“We spent at least three hours searching for the body at different police stations where policemen kept referring us. We finally arrived in Srinagar PCR at around 5:30 pm where we were told that the burial had taken place in Handwara,” said Zahid.
“They have killed my brother and now they don’t want us to even pray at his grave,” he added.
“If the probe finds out that he was a militant, then we have no right to claim his body. But we know that he was innocent,” Imran’s sister, Ambreen Qayoom, a lawyer, said. “They have killed him in an encounter and now we can’t bring him back. But they should at least return his body. It is our fundamental right.”
The family demands that the dead body of their son be handed over to them. Police reports suggest that the body has been buried in Handwara, north of Kashmir valley. The family has written a letter to the local magistrate for conducting an investigation.
Earlier in July last year, three labourers from Rajouri in Jammu, who went missing in Shopian district, were found to have been killed in a staged encounter by the Army. Although the police had launched an investigation, it was stonewalled due to procedural issues involved in carrying out criminal proceedings against the armed forces. However, this year in July alone 27 militants have been shot dead in 13 different gun battles, as per the local police.
Follow this link article of The Wire for more information https://thewire.in/rights/jammu-and-kashmir-encounter-police-imran-qayoom
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