The Jammu and Kashmir police have decided not to hand over the bodies of slain terrorists to their families to contain the spread of Wuhan Coronavirus during their funeral processions. Instead, the authorities will bury the body of the terrorists killed in encounter in the graveyards managed by the government in the presence of the family members.
Jammu and Kashmir police have started burying such bodies of slain terrorists at different designated graveyards in remote areas of central Kashmir and not in their native villages to avoid public gathering.
As per reports, the burials will be conducted by local authorities in the presence of Magistrate. A senior officer of Jammu and Kashmir police said, “Every effort is being made to conduct burials in a respectful manner, in the presence of their families and in full compliance with religious requirements. DNA samples are also being maintained to ensure transparency.”
The officer further said, “There is no legal obligation to hand over bodies of terrorists killed in combat to their families. Recall that even the body of Mohammad Afzal Guru, the Parliament House attacker, was buried in Tihar Jail after his hanging.”
According to reports, four terrorists who belonged to Al-Qaeda’s Kashmir region affiliate- Ansar Ghazwa’tul Hind, were buried in a graveyard managed by the government on April 22. The families of Bashrat Shah and Wakeel Ahmad Dar, both residents of the District of Pulwama and Tariq Ahmad Bhat of the Shopian district had attended the burial. The family members of the slain jihadist Uzair Ahmad Bhat from the district of Baramulla in North Kashmir could not attend the burial.
Sajad Ahmad, a Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist and a native of Shopian and Sartaj Ahmad from Kulgam were killed in an intense firefight near Keran earlier this month were also buried in the South-Kashmir graveyard with three unidentified terrorists who are believed to be Pakistani nationals.
People gathering in slain terrorists burial rites
Earlier this month, hundreds gathered in the burial rites of slain Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist Sajjad Nawab Dar in Sopore, defying the lockdown norms that also led to an increase in coronavirus cases in the valley. The Burial rites of Hizbul Mujahideen’s Mohammed Ashraf Malik in Kulgam’s Arwani also encountered a huge gathering. That was the first since the nullification of article 370 in the Jammu and Kashmir that raised fears about jihadis reappearing.
The phenomenon took place in 2015 when hundreds gathered in Kashmir in the rites of Lashkar-e-Taiba jihadist Abdul Rehman, also known as Abu Qasim. Jammu and Kashmir have registered a case against the people who had attended the burial of Dar on April 8.
Although the official reason for not handing over bodies of terrorists is cited as Coronavirus, it is being suggested that another reason for this move is to ‘pro-jihad’ gatherings. Due to large gatherings of anti-India crowd at funerals of terrorists, it was being demanded for a long time that bodies of the slain terrorists should not be handed over to their families.
