Srinagar: The family of a 38-year-old man from south Kashmir’s Pulwama district, who died in police custody earlier this week, has alleged that the torture he was subjected to in a neighbouring village caused his death.
Unnamed J&K police officials have, however, denied the allegations through unofficial statements in local media, claiming that the slain was questioned in connection with a case filed at Litter police station (FIR No 42/2024) during which his condition deteriorated and he passed away.
Senior superintendent of police, P.D. Nitya, told The Wire that the death occurred in Pulwama “as he was in custody after registering of the FIR”.
On being asked as to why his body was taken all the way to Srinagar and handed over to the family there, he said, “Post mortem happened in Srinagar; that’s why the body was handed over there.”
‘Interrogated and beaten up’
The victim, Imtiyaz Ahmad Pala, 36, has left two minor children. He worked as an electrician and was the only breadwinner of the family which include his wife, an ailing father and an unmarried sister.
Speaking with The Wire, his father-in-law, Ghulam Hassan, said that Pala was picked from his residence in Pulwama’s Bandina village by a group of security personnel on Sunday night, June 2 during a search operation in Grawgund, a neighbouring village.
“They were looking for an electrician to take stock of a (dysfunctional) generator. When he didn’t return, we went to the village where locals told us that he was interrogated and beaten up. We went to the nearest police post and filed a missing report,” he said, struggling emotionally while recalling the events.
Hassan said that their family looked for Pala in other neighbouring police stations on Monday, June 3, but to no avail, “In the evening, I got a call from the cops to bring his mobile phone to Pulwama police lines which I did. While I was there, I requested them to let me meet him but they said his condition was serious and advised me to try on the next day,” he said.
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‘No meetings, trumped up charges’
When Hassan, a farmer, returned to the Pulwama police lines on June 4, the cops again refused permission for a meeting. He claimed that after a meeting between the Senior Superintendent of Police and the police team which had detained Pala, a senior police officer asked him to follow them to Srinagar Police Control Room where the family was kept waiting for the whole day.
“In the evening, the cops gave me two options. Either he was going to be framed in a militancy case in which case they (police) said that his body would be buried far away and our home would get demolished too. The other option they gave me was to sign a document. They said they would frame him in a drug-related matter and I would get to take his body home,” Hassan said.
Following the reading down of Article 370, authorities in Jammu and Kashmir have been burying suspected militants killed in alleged encounters with security forces in unmarked graveyards far away from their homes. Some properties of militancy suspects have been either seized or demolished in recent years.
“How could I say no?” Hassan continued, adding that the police returned Pala’s body at around 2:30 on the night of June 4, after the family had prepared the grave (a video clip was also sent to police by the family as confirmation) and they promised to keep the body at home for final rites for “only 15 minutes”.
“He was innocent,” Hassan said amid sobs, “Forget drugs, he didn’t even smoke. You can ask around what kind of person he was. And even if he was guilty, why did they kill him? Our martyr’s underclothes and trouser were smeared with blood and chilli powder. I buried them along with him.”
Hassan claimed that he was present at the spot when authorities conducted post-mortem examination of Pala, “There was a deep pit in his head. His genitals were injured badly. They packed his body. I didn’t had the courage to show his body to the family. They caught only a glimpse of his face,” he said.
According to reports, Pala was detained in connection with a case which has been filed under sections 8 (cultivation or transport of banned drugs) and 22 (punishment for contravention in relation to psychotropic substances) of The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985. It was not clear if Paul was named as accused in the case.
“He was taken to a plywood factory in Grawgund where he was tortured along with another man, who is an electrician,” said a family source. The source alleged that the two men were tortured at the factory due to which both of them lost consciousness on the spot on Sunday night.
A local media outlet reported that Paul developed complications at Litter police station from where he was taken to a local hospital where he succumbed.
