Sayar Ahmad was not allowed to have a last glimpse of his slain father or perform religious rites for him as police held the son in detention for questioning after four militants were killed in their home on Friday.
Ahmad’s father, Mohammad Yousuf Rather and mother Rafiqa Bano, witnesses said were hit with bullets right in their house in Nowshera-Khiram village of Srigufwara right at the start of the shootout between the trapped militants and government forces.
Villagers alleged Rather, 55, and his wife were not given time to leave their home and after receiving bullets they lay bleeding there for a long time before they could be moved to hospital.
But Rather died on way most likely because of blood loss.
As he lay bleeding, Rather’s son, who managed to leave the house, was arrested by men of the special operations group of police and detained at the joint interrogation center at Khanabal.
Neighbours and relatives pleaded to no avail with the police to let Ahmad shoulder the coffin of his father and perform his last rites.
In the end, Rather was lowered into his grave as his son faced interrogation by security officials and wife struggled in a hospital in Srinagar.
“We expected them (police) to release him (Ahmad) on humanitarian grounds so that he could have a last glimpse of his father,” said Gulzar Ahmad, a neighbor, as mourners readied Rather’s body for burial.
The locals accused government forces of not allowing the family to come out of the house and firing towards the house indiscriminately soon after spotting the militants inside.
“The cordon was laid around 11:00 pm in the night and at around 6:00 am early morning we heard the gunshots,” said Muhamad Ashraf from the neighbourhood.
He said, before the gunfight erupted the government forces took along Abdul Rashid Wani and his son Ashfaq Wani towards the houses they suspected militants were holed up.
Ashraf said, quoting Rather’s daughter that Sayar Ahmad was called out by soldiers by name and asked him to open the windows.
“Once he did so, soldiers fired a volley of bullets towards the house in which his parents were hit,” Ashraf told Greater Kashmir, quoting Ahmad’s sister.
He said that even though Rather was hit with bullet in his leg he was not allowed to be moved for quite a while and suffered heavy blood loss.