J&K cops stop handing over bodies of slain militants to family members due to Covid-19

Srinagar: Breaking the tradition of handing over the bodies of local militants killed in encounters to their family members, J&K police have started burying such bodies at different designated graveyards in remote areas of central Kashmir and not in their native villages to avoid public gathering during the lockdown imposed to contain the spread of Covid-19. Such burials are, however, taking place in the presence of the family members of the slain militants and the district magistrate concerned.

Four such burials took place on Thursday at designated graveyards in central Kashmir. The four local militants were killed in an encounter with security forces in south Kashmir’s Shopian district on Wednesday. They were identified as Basharat Shah, Wakeel Dar, Tariq Bhat and Uzair Bhat of Ansar Gazwat-ul-Hind, an affiliate of Al-Qaeda in Kashmir. Police hit upon the idea of such burials after hundreds of people joined the funeral of a slain militant in Sopore on April 8.

Inspector-General of Police, Kashmir, Vijay Kumar confirmed that the four slain militants were not buried at their native places. “Families identified three out of the four militants and participated in burials in the presence of a magistrate,” he said.

This is for the first time in the three-decade-old armed insurgency in Kashmir that bodies of local militants are not being handed over to their families for the last rites, official sources said.

In connection with the April 8 funeral of the militant in Sopore, police had registered an FIR against the family members and later arrested over a dozen people for allegedly participating in the procession in violation of lockdown protocol.

Till April 8, J&K police used to hand over bodies of local terrorists to their families for last rites, while those of unidentified and Pakistani militants were buried in a few designated graveyards in remote areas of Baramulla and Kupwara districts.

ToI