The Jammu and Kashmir police on Wednesday said a 24-year-old youth from Sopore was found dead “the same day he escaped from police custody” in Baramulla district. However, the family has alleged that he was killed in police custody.
A police spokesman said in a statement, “one ‘over ground worker’, Irfan Ahmad Dar, age 23/24, a resident of Sidiq-Colony, Sopore, was apprehended on September 15 around 12:45 p.m. and two Chinese hand- grenades were recovered from his possession”.
An “over ground worker” is a term used by the police for a youth who acts as a courier or provides shelter to militants but may not be an active militant.
The police said it registered a case under FIR No. 257/2020 under Section 18 of the ULA (P) Act, 7/27 A. Act.
“During the course of investigation, a police team visited Chairdaji area of Tujjar-Sharief along with Dar for effecting some more recovery on his disclosure. In the meantime, Dar, taking advantage of the darkness and terrain, managed to escape”, said the police.
A separate case FIR No. 71/2020 under Section 224 of the IPC was registered in the Police Station Bomai. “During search, the body of Dar was found near a stone quarry of Tujjar-Sharief,” the police said.
The body was taken to the nearby Primary Health Centre (PHC) and shifted to the Police Control Room, Kashmir, for fulfilling medical and other legal formalities. “Further investigation is on,” the police said.
Innocent, killed in custody: family
Refuting the police version, the family members alleged that Dar, a shopkeeper by profession, was “dubbed as a militant and killed in custody”.
“I, along with my brother Dar, was picked up by the police for questioning on September 14. We were kept separately. I was set free. My brother is innocent and the police claim about the recovery of grenades is nothing but a baseless story”, Dar's brother Javaid Ahmed told reporters in Sopore. “Please check the footage of the camera installed at home. Check our mobiles. No recovery was made from our house”, he added.
The family has demanded "an impartial and independent probe into the “custodial killing”.
Net cut
Meanwhile, the authorities snapped Internet “as a precautionary measure”, as street protests were spreading in Sopore.
Peoples Conference chief Sajad Lone, in a tweet, said, “The Sopore incident just doesn’t add up. They have done a bad job even at inventing a story. The guilty need to be punished”.
J&K Apni Party leader Javid Baig demanded an inquiry into the incident “in order to ascertain the veracity of contradictory claims made by the police and the family”.
