SRINAGAR: The heart-wrenching video of a young Kashmiri girl weeping over her father’s killing in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir has been widely circulated on social media in which she narrates the laughing response of the Indian security forces.
Indian forces martyred several Kashmiris in the past days including a doctor and a trader, prompting protest from the families and others in the occupied territory demanding the return of the bodies of their loved ones. Mohammad Altaf Bhat, a businessman, was among four killed in an extra-judicial murder at a commercial complex in Srinagar in occpied Kashmir.
In a widely-shared video, Bhat’s 13 -year-old daughter tearfully describes the moment she learnt about her father’s death. “My chachu (uncle) got a call around 10 am and he started crying…I was at home…and I heard sounds of shouting and screaming…I ran away. I was praying to Allah,” she says, breaking down.
“My cousin- who is a witness- told me that my father was picked up thrice – twice he was released. And the third time he was killed. What is the meaning of this? Other witnesses were also killed – what is this?”
She grows more and more distraught as she shares: “I tell them – uncle how can you think my father is this…They laugh at me – what response can I give them? They were laughing…They were shamelessly laughing at me. What could I say to them?”
She also speaks about the son of the second businessman killed that day. “My brother is in his class. He is very young. What do we tell him? He is very close to his father. I am attached to my father. Now what will I do? How do I take care of my mother? She is not eating. She is crying. What do I do?”
Political leaders including former IOK Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti have raised questions over the encounter in Srinagar. The families said that both businessmen were killed in cold blood by security forces. They claim the police refused to hand over their bodies for funerals and proper burial citing law and order problems.
Listen and share voice of daughter of Altaf Bhat who along with 3 other men was killed by Indian Police in #Hyderpora #Kashmir in what’s being claimed as a fake encounter. Families were even denied the bodies by authorities for proper burial. #KashmiriLivesMatter @ImranKhanPTI pic.twitter.com/TvnI8M1r8b
— M. Jibran Nasir ???????? (@MJibranNasir) November 17, 2021
Pakistan has also strongly condemned the extra-judicial killing of four more Kashmiris by Indian occupation forces in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) recently.
At least 25 Kashmiris have been martyred in fake encounters and so-called “cordon and search operations” by Indian occupation forces since October 1, 2021, a spokesperson for the Foreign Office said.
He pointed out that extra-judicial killings, illegal detentions, daily harassment and restrictions on fundamental freedoms, continue to be the norm in IIOJK. “India must understand that no amount of systematic brutalities, rampant use of force and brutal clamp-downs can suppress the indigenous Kashmiri struggle,” the spokesperson stressed.
