Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir – The relations of a teenage boy in Indian-administered Kashmir, killed in an alleged gunfight, have been charged underneath an stringent anti-terror regulation for holding an illustration within the village “demanding the return of his physique”.
Ather Mushtaq, 16, from Bellow village in Pulwama, was amongst three males killed by Indian safety forces on December 30 final 12 months throughout what police described as a gunfight after the boys refused to give up on the outskirts of the principle metropolis of Srinagar.
Police mentioned the boys – 22-year-old Aijaz Ganai and Zubair Lone, 25, being the opposite two – had been “hardcore associates of terrorists” against Indian rule.
However Ather’s father Mushtaq Ahmed Wani says his son’s killing was a cold-blooded “pretend encounter”, a preferred time period used to elucidate extrajudicial killings by the safety forces.
The native administration refused to return the our bodies of the three males to their households and buried them at a distant graveyard about 115 kilometres (70 miles) away in Sonmarg.
Underneath a coverage began in April final 12 months, authorities in Indian-administered Kashmir have buried greater than 100 alleged rebels in unmarked graves, denying their households correct funerals and including to widespread anti-India anger within the area.
‘World should see this oppression’
Wani on Monday instructed Al Jazeera he, alongside along with his two brothers, three different family members and the imam of a neighborhood mosque, “have been booked for demanding the physique of his son” underneath the Illegal Actions (Prevention) Act or UAPA.
“On Friday [last week], I together with others raised slogans in entrance of police officers close to the village mosque after prayers. I used to be simply demanding the physique of my son who was killed in a pretend encounter. It was all a peaceable enchantment to ask for my son’s physique,” he instructed Al Jazeera.
“If the police does this to a mourning father who simply needs his son’s grave close to his house, the world should see this oppression.”
Wani mentioned they got here to know in regards to the UAPA case after some village elders had been known as to the police station and the imam was detained.
“Let the police impose all its oppression on me for demanding my son’s physique. I’ll proceed to ask for it even when it means standing alone until I’m alive,” he mentioned.
A senior police official confirmed to Al Jazeera that “seven folks have been booked underneath UAPA” together with the boy’s father.
A police doc, accessed by Al Jazeera, says on February 5, 2021, the Rajpora police station acquired data “by way of dependable sources” that after providing Friday prayers at a mosque in Bellow village, a “violent” mob congregated.
“The mob was led by seven folks to hinder the principle street and had been elevating anti-national slogans towards the integrity of the nation,” says the doc.
“The mentioned individuals are organising such unlawful processions underneath felony conspiracy and are abetting anti-national parts,” it says, including that an investigation is happening.
Empty grave
Final month, Wani dug a grave for his teenage son at his village, “as a mark of protest”, demanding that his physique be exhumed and returned for burial at his ancestral graveyard.
The grave stays empty.
For the reason that killing on December 30, Wani’s household has held a number of demonstrations to press the federal government for the return of Ather’s physique.
He was supposed to look for his college examinations the following day, his household mentioned.
Mehbooba Mufti, the previous chief minister of the Muslim-majority area, expressed her outrage over the UAPA case on Twitter.
“After dropping his son in an alleged pretend encounter, Athar Mushtaq’s father has been slapped with an FIR for demanding his physique. His crime was to stage a peaceable protest,” she posted.
“The inhabitants of Naya [New] Kashmir can’t even query a callous [administration] and have been decreased to residing corpses.”
In August 2019, India revoked Kashmir’s partial autonomy, imposed crippling safety lockdowns and communication blackouts on the territory and arrested 1000’s of individuals.
Since then, India’s right-wing authorities has launched new legal guidelines and insurance policies that critics say are a part of a plan to populate the area with Indian settlers.
Authorized consultants within the area mentioned the UAPA was being misused towards the Kashmiris.
“That is yet one more occasion of the misuse of UAPA. Truly, they aren’t flouting the regulation, they’re utilizing this regulation for the precise function for which that is meant to be which is to create concern among the many lots,” lawyer Habeel Iqbal instructed Al Jazeera.
The UAPA was amended in 2019 to permit the federal government to designate a person as a “terrorist”.
Underneath the regulation, police can detain an individual for six months with out producing any proof, and the accused can subsequently be imprisoned for as much as seven years – provisions that rights teams name “draconian”.
Kashmir is split between India and Pakistan, however claimed in its entirety by the nuclear-armed neighbours who’ve fought two of their three wars over the Himalayan area.
For the reason that formation of the 2 nations in 1947, India has relied on its navy to retain management over the portion of Kashmir it administers.
Tens of 1000’s of civilians, rebels and authorities forces have been killed within the area since an armed rebellion towards the Indian rule started in 1989.