SRI NAGAR: The National Conference (NC) on Wednesday demanded an FIR registered for murder against the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for the custodial death of 28-year-old Rizwan Ahmad Pandit.
“Rizwan was a teacher and killed in custody. The NIA had taken him into custody for questioning and he died in their custody,” NC spokesperson Aga Ruhullah said.
Rizwan, a teacher in a private school, was arrested from his home in Awantipora in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district by security personnel on Sunday evening and died at the headquarters of J&K Police’s Special Operations Group (SOG) in Srinagar on Tuesday.
“Whether he was in the custody of NIA or police, the responsibility lies with the Governor’s office,” Ruhullah said. He demanded that an FIR for murder be registered against officials in whose custody Rizwan died. The NC spokesman alleged that the investigation agency had become an “instrument of terror”.
The NIA is probing many terror attacks in Kashmir as well as separatists’ link with terror funding.
“It (NIA) is being used to create political space for a particular party and to suppress those who are opposed to the saffron ideology,” the NC spokesman said. Rizwan’s brother Mubashir Pandit alleged that it was a “cold-blooded” murder and said the family would approach court to ensure that those involved are punished. Life in the Valley was crippled by a strike called by separatists against the death.
Train services also remained suspended. The authorities imposed curbs in parts of Srinagar and south Kashmir to foil protests.