Insha Mushtaq Dar
It has been one whole year since Mushtaq Ahmed Wani’s son Athar Ahmed Wani (16) was killed along with two others at Lawaypora, Srinagar. Since then, Mushtaq Ahmed has been awaiting his son Athar’s dead body. He has dug a grave at the family’s ancestral graveyard, which awaits Athar’s dead body.
Athar Mushtaq Wani was killed by security forces along with two others. The forces alleged that Athar was an ’OGW’ (Overground Worker) for militants. Mushtaq Ahmed denied the forces’ claim and said that Athar was only an 11th grader, who had to sit in his exam the next day. The three deceased were buried by the forces in the Sonamarg area of Ganderbal.
Mushtaq Ahmed on the death anniversary of Athar Mushtaq Wani told The Kashmiriyat, “It has been a year now but justice is yet to be delivered. We were assured by the authorities that a probe will be set up in the case and justice will be delivered. We are yet to see that promised ‘Justice’.”
He says that ever since his son was killed in the ‘encounter,’ he has been wandering from place to place to at least be given the dead body of his son. “We have written application to the higher authorities including the Lieutenant Governor but nobody paid any heed towards our plea,” Mushtaq Ahmed Wani told The Kashmiriyat.
On the evening of December 29, 2020, based on the specific inputs the Indian Army’s 02 Rashtriya Rifles unit launched a cordon and search operation in the Lawaypora area on the outskirts of Srinagar. The police claimed that due to the darkness the operation was suspended and was resumed in the morning of December, 30. Soon, at around 11:30 a.m. the police announced that 3 militants were killed in the encounter between security forces and militants.
Firstly, the police said the three people killed in the encounter were not listed as (militants) in police records. Two days later, the police claimed that all the three deceased were “(militant) associates.”
The deceased were identified as Zubair Ahmad Lone from Shopian district of South Kashmir, Ather Mushtaq from South Kashmir’s Pulwama district, and Ajaz Maqbool Ganie also from South Kashmir’s Pulwama district.
After the images of these deceased young men surfaced on the internet, family members of the slain youth rushed to Srinagar from far-flung areas of south Kashmir wailing, protesting, and claiming that the deceased youth were regular students, not ‘militants’ or ‘OGW’s’.
The visuals of men and women wailing in the city center surfaced on the internet. In the viral videos, a wailing woman could be seen saying, “He was looking for the hostel in the city. How did he become a militant overnight?” Families of the deceased could be seen crying, wailing, and protesting against the ‘injustice’. The parents of the deceased youth were demanding for the bodies to be returned atleast so that they could bid a farewell to their kins.
Among the protesting relatives was Mushtaq Ahmed Wani, who was crying his soul out for justice to be delivered. He could be heard saying, “Ye toh 16 saal ka bacha tha isko kyun maara?” (He was a 16 year old kid. What was he killed for?)
Mushtaq Ahmed told The Kashmiriyat that the grave that he dug for his son remains open and “it will remain so till the body is returned and I will continue to fight for the right to perform the last rites of my son. I travel from Pulwama all the way to Sonamarg area of central Kashmir to visit the grave of my son.”
“My son was not involved in any such activity which is being proposed by the officials. They are yet to prove any involvement of my son in any militancy issue. They killed him in a fake encounter and later labelled him as a ‘militant-associate’,” said Mushtaq Ahmed.
“They claim that he was involved with militancy back from 2017, he was 13 years old back then, if he was involved in any such case from 2017 what were their agencies doing from the past 3 years? Why didn’t they arrest him back then? Even if they claim he was an ‘OGW’ they should have arrested him earlier, why did they kill him?” he added.
It is pertinent to mention that in his struggle for justice for his son, Mushtaq has confronted various troubles. He, along with 7 others, was put behind the bars and booked under ‘anti-terror laws’ for demanding the body of his son. After the recent Hyderpora killings, the return of the bodies of the two deceased enlightened a hope in Mushtaq to get the body of his beloved son back.
“During the 18-hour long operation, they didn’t provide any information about the involved people. They didn’t even call the parents to ask them to surrender. If they would have done so we would have gone to the spot and verified if they are associated with any outfit and wouldn’t put forward any demand. They didn’t do any such thing, how are we supposed to believe them? My son never had any links or history of unwanted or illegal activities,” Mushtaq said, while talking to The Kashmiriyat.
Mushtaq Ahmed said that it was claimed that the forces have collected 60% of the proof in order to prove that Athar was involved with the militants and that they were yet to investigate about the remaining 40%.
“They claimed that within 10 days, they will collect the remaining proof and provide it to us. It has been more than 11 months now and we are still waiting for them to prove their ‘false claims’. They haven’t even provided a single proof or witness who can prove their claims. They didn’t verify the fact that if he was in Pulwama at 2:30 p.m. how was he trapped in the encounter at 4:30 p.m. All the three deceased were regular civilians none of them so far has been proven otherwise,” he said.
“He was a class eleventh kid. He appeared for four of his papers and was about to appear for his fifth paper. The four papers remain as proof with me that my son was a school going kid. He was a sober, kind, and responsible kid. He used to look after our house whenever I was busy at work from a very young age,” Mushtaq Ahmed said about his son Athar.
“Whole of my family is still in a state of grief. His mother is a heart patient, she suffers emotionally due to the grief of her son,” he added.
Mushtaq Ahmed told The Kashmiriyat that it was after a long struggle that he reached Sonamarg to atleast perform the last rites of his son. “After a long struggle, they allowed me to participate in his last rites but to add to my miseries, there was no proper facility available for the process of burial,” he said.
“I carried the dead body of my son on my shoulders to bury him in the grave. While I was carrying my dead child there were people who were laughing behind my back. The grave was dug with the help of machines, there was no proper grave. I carried soil in my Pheran to cover the grave,” Mushtaq Ahmed said.
“Whenever a policeman dies, the body is returned to the family and thousands of people attend their last rites to bid them farewell but why are we being denied this basic right. Where is the justice?” he asked.
“The IGP had claimed then, that the bodies were held back and buried by the authorities due to COVID-19, and the last rites may lead to the assembly of people. We pleaded with them that only 4 people will perform his last rites but the body should be given back but they didn’t pay any heed,” Mushtaq Ahmed said.