Authorities in Shopian issue movement passes to 2 families who claim slain militants their kin

Ishfaq Tantry

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, April 19

The authorities in south Kashmir have issued movement passes to the two families which have claimed that the two militants killed in the Shopian gunfight on Friday were their sons. One of the families from Shopian has claimed that their son Asif Ahmed Dar was one of the militants killed in the encounter.

The movement passes have been issued to the families to facilitate their travel to north Kashmir, where the two militants were buried quietly in a graveyard designated by the authorities as the police claimed that their identities were not established.

“We had moved an application before the Deputy Commissioner concerned, requesting him to hand over the body as the family claims one of the slain militants is their son, Asif Ahmad. Now, they have issued us movement passes and told us to move a proper application in this regard before the Deputy Commissioner, Baramulla, where the two militants have been buried,” said Advocate Mudasir Ahmad Dar, who along with Asif’s brother and cousin has been issued a movement pass by the Shopian district administration to travel to Baramulla on Monday. The movement pass, a scanned copy of which has been seen by The Tribune, is valid from April 20 to 26.

The movement pass states that the trio be allowed to move along with the vehicle from Shopian to Sheeri in Baramulla for the police verification purpose and back.

Asked if the authorities in Shopian had given them a written order on the exhumation of the bodies in Baramulla, the lawyer said: “No written order has been given to us. They just told us verbally to move an application before the DC, Baramulla, for the exhumation and collection of the DNA samples of the family members.”

The family said Asif had called them on Friday, saying he was trapped while an encounter was on. “Asif called the family around 5 am on Friday and told his brother that he is trapped inside. His brother later informed the family and a local police officer about the phone call. The family requested the police to hand over the body,” said one of the relatives of Asif.

Meanwhile, officials in Baramulla said they had no information on the exhumation being carried out as yet.

“As per the standard operating procedure, the DNA samples of any unidentified militant buried in the designated graveyard in Baramulla is collected beforehand,” the officials said, adding that a due process is followed in case of the exhumation of the unidentified bodies if any family claims it after the burial.

The officials said even if the Shopian families had moved an application before the DC concerned, before ordering the exhumation, he would have to seek a report from the police and then order the collection of blood samples from the family members concerned for carrying out the DNA sampling and matching.

“The exhumation may be ordered only if both DNA samples match,” they said.

Another family from Ganawpora, Shopian, also claimed that their son was killed in the Friday gunfight. Sources said the family had also been issued the same type of movement pass.

“We have been issued a pass to reach Baramulla. It has been issued in the name of three persons, including the father of the youth who we say was killed in Friday encounter,” said Ghulam Nabi Magray, uncle of Rahil Ahmad, believed to have been killed in the Shopian encounter.

He said the family was yet to decide whether to travel to Baramulla.

The two militants were killed on Friday morning in a gunfight with security forces in a Shopian village. The police maintain that the two slain militants are unidentified.

When asked that the two families had approached them and claimed the two slain militants as their sons, the Superintendent of Police (SP), Shopian, had told The Tribune on April 18 that he did not know “what is their source for making such a claim”.

“They have not shown us the pictures,” the SP said, adding that he had no idea of the two having been buried.

The slain militants were buried in a Baramulla hamlet on Friday night. The authorities have also taken the DNA samples of the two. Bodies of the non-local militants are usually buried in this remote Baramulla village, which comes under the jurisdiction of the Sheeri police station, as there is no chance of holding a big funeral, which has been a major challenge for the forces over the years.