Abu Dujana killing: Hurriyat calls for Kashmir shutdown, another civilian dies

A 30-year-old man injured in clashes between civilians and security forces died on Wednesday even as parts of Kashmir shut down in response to a Hurriyat call for protests against the killing of militant commander Abu Dujana.

Police said Akeel Ahmad Bhat, a resident of Pulwama, died of bullet injuries at a government hospital in Srinagar, a day after he was hit on the chest when police fired on a mob protesting the killing of Dujana and another militant.

Another person was killed in the violence following the killing of the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant. Several other civilians were injured when security forces retaliated at the stone-pelting mob with pellets and bullets.

The injured included a nurse and a paramedic student, who were hit by splinters during the firing by security forces outside the Pulwama district hospital, said medical superintendent Rasheed Para.

Large parts of the valley continued to remain under curfew-like restrictions following the militants killing. The separatist-called shutdown also affected life across the valley, sources said.

The authorities also shut down mobile internet.

Officials, meanwhile, said the Jammu and Kashmir government, in a first, will approach the Pakistan high commission to accept the body Dujana, who is believed to be from Gilgit-Baltistan region in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

“We are collecting evidence and will approach the Pakistani high commission soon so that if his family wants they can claim the body,” the state director general of police SP Vaid told HT.

Till now, bodies of foreign militants killed in the state are handed over to local residents in Baramulla for burial in a graveyard in Gantamulla village. More than 40 non-local militants have been buried in the graveyard, officials added.

He, however, did explain the reason for the decision.

Earlier, the Indian government had made many requests to Islamabad to take back bodies of militants suspected to be from the Pakistan. They included Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist caught alive during the 2008 Mumbai terror attack. He was hanged in November 2012 and buried at a jail in Pune.

Islamabad have always turned down India’s requests as accepting the bodies would mean admitting Pakistani militants are involved in creating unrest in India.

Vaid said the militant’s body has been buried temporarily at the Gantamulla graveyard as “amanat”, a concept in Islam where a body is buried with the faith that the earth with protect it.

Police said the body can be buried properly if Pakistan refuses to accept it.