Bodies of two Kashmir Victims of ‘Staged Encounter’ Finally Returned
Update
By: Majid Maqbool
A Nov. 15 gunfight in Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir region, in which four persons were killed by government troops in suspicious circumstances has outraged residents and brought back focus on alleged staged encounters, an indication that the post August 5, 2019 unilateral revocation of autonomous status of the troubled region by the Indian government has hardly brought any semblance of peace.
Encounters are on the rise and increasingly questioned as "fake encounters" by the residents as gunfights between military, police, and militants continue across the region.
Soon after the encounter ended on Tuesday night, the families of the killed civilians, who said their loved ones had been used as human shields by authorities searching for militants, demanded their bodies although the dead already had been secretly buried by Jammu and Kashmir police far away in northern Kashmir on the same night.
Among those killed were dental surgeon Mudasir Gul, trader Mohammad Altaf Bhat, both residents of Srinagar city, and Mohammad Amir, a 22-year-old from Gool, Ramban District. Their bodies were exhumed and returned three days after the incident