Kashmir Militant’s Families Accuse Officials of Using COVID-19 as Excuse to Prevent Them from Attending Funerals

On the night of September 27, the Reshi family of Samboora, a village located in the south of Indian-administered Kashmir, went to bed unaware of a gun battle between Indian troops and separatist insurgents at the other end of their village.When they woke up the next morning, their son, a militant, was dead.“People told us that my son had been martyred,” Azzi Begum recalled as she sat in her living room.Azzi Begum, mother of militant commander Aijaz Ahmad Reshi, sits in the drawing room of his house while narrating the details of the day when her son was killed. (UbaidUllah Wani/VOA)“We did not receive any phone call from Aijaz when he was encircled by the security forces, nor were we approached by the authorities to convince him to surrender,” she added.Security forces in the region sometimes bring family members to encounter sites to convince militants to surrender rather than fight to the death.Hours later, family members were approached by police to identify the body.“It was the first time I saw him in four years,” Begum told VOA, adding, “He did not visit home after joining the rebels because our area is surrounded by Indian troops on all side(s).”Aijaz Ahmad Reshi had left his home in 2016, the year when the killing by security forces of a popular militant commander, Burhan Wani, led to riots and mass protests in Indian Kashmir.He joined a Pakistan-based militant outfit, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), to fight the Indian control of Kashmir.Kashmir, a Muslim majority Himalayan region, is a disputed territory between South Asian nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan. Both countries control parts of it and have fought multiple wars over it.Family members of an Indian soldier, Shakir Manzoor, displaying his clothes after they were found in an orchid by his father in Shopian district of Indian administered Kashmir. (UbaidUllah Wani/VOA)“We can’t return the body to avoid the spread of coronavirus at his funeral,” an audio message from the militants said. “We performed his last rites the same way as government forces do when they deny bodies of militants to their families and bury them in unmarked graves.”At least one other similar case has been reported.Families of militants told VOA burials in far flung areas made it difficult to visit their graves.  “Not everyone can afford to re-visit,” said a cousin of a militant wishing not to be named.“If funerals pose a threat of spreading COVID-19, why are hundreds of people allowed at funerals of security people killed by militants? Why are official ceremonies held for them?” he further asked.When Altaf Hussain, a police constable, was killed by militants in central Kashmir in October, Indian media reported that hundreds of people participated in his funeral prayers in Srinagar.   Kashmir based political analyst Sheikh Showkat said that every dead body had a right to a decent burial.“Dead bodies can’t be denied to families using COVID-19 as an excuse,” Showkat said.“If COVID-19 poses a risk in the burial of combatants of one side, it should be true for the other side as well,” Showkat added. “Geneva Convention should be implemented without any discrimination.”

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