Kashmiri man, who lost his minor son in alleged fake encounter, booked under anti-terror law

by Abbas Adil

The Jammu and Kashmir Police have registered a case under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against seven persons including father and family members of a minor who was killed in an alleged fake encounter on 30 December 2020. The police have booked them for organising a procession.

A case (FIR No. 7/2021) was filed against seven people from Bellow village in Pulwama district under sections 147, 341, 153 IPCs, and 13 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) at the police station Rajpora in Pulwama.

The seven people named by the police include Mushtaq Ahmad Wani, father of Ather Mushtaq, the teenager killed in the Srinagar “gunfight”. It also names Athar’s two uncles Mohammad Shafi Wani and Mohammad Hussain Wani. The other four people named are Fayaz Ahmad Wani son of Mohammad Sultan, Jalaludin Wani son of Mohammad Sultan, Ruba Mir son of Mushtaq Ahmad Mir, and Mushtaq Ahmad Mir son of Ama Mir.

Speaking to The Kashmir Walla over the phone from his residence in Pulwama, Mushtaq Ahmad Wani said, “Eight people have been booked in the FIR including a local cleric”. He added other than him, two of his brothers were also booked in the FIR.

“The police told me to stop talking to the media and to forget whatever has happened,” Wani told The Kashmir Walla, “and to shut my mouth.”

Authorities buried them at a remote graveyard about 115 kilometers (70 miles) from their ancestral villages. Under a policy started in April 2020, Indian authorities have buried over 150 alleged Kashmiri rebels in unmarked graves, denying their families proper funerals. The policy has added to widespread anti-India anger in the region.

The young men’s families have protested repeatedly seeking their bodies, while insisting they were not militants and were killed in cold blood. There is no way to independently confirm either claim.

The killings and remote burial drew widespread public mourning. Videos on social media in which Ahmed sought his son’s body triggered an outburst of emotions as thousands rallied behind a “return the bodies” campaign.

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