SRINAGAR: Asserting that compensation cannot bring their loved ones back, the father of one of the three victims of the July 18 Shopian fake encounter has demanded that the security men who were involved in the killings should be handed death penalty.
Mohammad Yousuf, the father of 25-year-old Mohammad Ibrar, said the government has fulfilled one of their demands of exhuming the bodies and handing them over to their families for proper burial.
On October 3, the administration exhumed bodies of Ibrar, Imtiyaz Ahmad (22) and Mohammad Abrar (16) from a graveyard at Gantamulla in north Kashmir, after an investigation and a DNA match revealed that the trio were labourers from Rajouri.
Yousuf said his son had returned from Kuwait about five months ago.
“Due to the outbreak of the pandemic, he could not travel again to Kuwait and along with his relatives left for Shopian on July 16 to work as labourer for earning livelihood.”
“We last contacted him on July 17... For 24 days, we did not know the fate of our sons. On August 10, I came across photographs of ‘militants’ killed in the Shopian encounter on social media and instantly identified them,” he said.
Yousuf said all the three were innocent and not remotely connected to militancy.
“They had gone to Shopian to earn livelihood for themselves and their families.” Ibrar has a 15-month-old son.
“We want justice. By killing our innocent wards, they have killed our hopes. We demand severe punishment including death penalty be handed down to the soldiers who killed our wards,” he said.
Yousuf said if death penalty is awarded to the guilty soldiers, it would act as a deterrent and prevent innocent killings in fake encounters in future.