Srinagar: “I was restless and couldn’t even sleep. I feel relaxed now, but the pain of losing him at a young age is killing me,” says 60-year-old Muhammad Lateef Magrey, who saw the grave of his son for the first time on Sunday, July 30 – nearly 19 months after he was killed in a controversial encounter in Hyderpora area of Srinagar.
Also read: Three Suspected Militants Shot Dead in Srinagar, Doubts Over Police’s ‘Encounter’ Claim
Lateef offered prayers on the grave of his son, Amir Magrey, after a long-drawn legal battle in the Supreme Court and J&K high court. While J&K police claimed that Amir was a militant, his family denied the charge.
‘Offered prayers after 19 months’
Muhammad Lateef Magrey – who was fighting to seek the body of his son for its burial at his native place in the Ramban district of Jammu – offered Fateh-i-Khawani (prayers for the dead) on the grave of his son on Sunday, July 30, at Wadder Payeen, a remote village in northern Kashmir’s Handwara area.
“At least, we now know where he is buried. I feel relieved but I still want to bury his body at my native place so that I can visit his grave daily and offer prayers for him,” says Magrey, who along with his wife, three sons, and a daughter, had come to Wadder Payeen on Sunday to visit grave of his son.
“When we reached there, the police and locals showed us his grave. We recited Quran and offered Fateh-i-Khawani on the grave,” says Lateef. “We also fixed the headstone on his grave, so that it can be easily identified. I was told by locals that there are around 150 graves in the cemetery.”
Amir Magray’s brother shows a picture of Amir on his mobile phone which was clicked in Dal Lake, Srinagar in 2021 summer. Photo: Adil Abbas
Wadder Payeen, a remote village in Handwara area of north Kashmir’s Kupwara districts, houses one of the graveyards in Kashmir where slain militants are buried. Since April 2020, authorities have not handed over the bodies of militants killed in anti-militancy operations in Kashmir to their families and have been instead burying them in some graveyards located in far-off places.
While four persons were killed in the Hyderpora shootout, Jammu and Kashmir government had immediately exhumed the bodies of two locals – Altaf Bhat and Dr. Mudasir Gul – and handed them over to their families following protests. It had, however, refused to hand over the body of Amir to his family.
Also read: ‘We Want to See His Body, His Face, One Last Time’: Family of Civilian Killed in J&K Encounter
The family of Amir was also paid a compensation of Rs 5 lakh by the J&K government on July 21, after they filed a contempt petition in the Supreme Court against Jammu and Kashmir government for not implementing the court’s directions in the case.
Lateef says they are struggling to come to terms with the death of his son. “His death has completely shattered us. We cannot believe that he is dead. His mother has been unwell after his death,” he says.
He vouches for the innocence of his son Amir. “My son was innocent and did not even have a remote link with militancy. I fail to understand why police declared him as militant,” he says.
He adds that he will do whatever is possible to erase the “label” of militancy on his dead son. “I have fought against militants, my son cannot be a militant. He was working as a helper at the office of Dr. Mudasir Gul, who was also killed in the shootout,” says Magrey.
J&K Police had said that Amir was a close aide of a Pakistani militant killed in the shootout and his activities showed that he, too, was a militant.
Not an easy battle for Lateef
Lateef says that it was not an easy battle for him. “On November 16, 2021, I heard that my son was killed. I immediately rushed to Srinagar and sought his body but officials told me that he has already been buried,” he says.
Lateef later approached Jammu & Kashmir high court to seek the body of his son.
On May 27, 2022, a single bench of the J&K high court directed the administration of the Union territory to exhume the body and arrange for its transportation to his native village in Ramban district.
Also read: ‘Want to Bring Him Home’: HC Allows Family of Man Killed in Hyderpora Encounter to Exhume Body
The court also said that the state should also pay compensation of Rs 5 lakh to his father for “deprivation of his right to have the dead body of his son and give him decent burial as per family traditions, religious obligations, and faith which the deceased professed when he was alive,” if it was not in a deliverable state.
In July 2022, a division bench of the J&K high court said the plea for the exhumation of the body for “performance of last rights” was “unacceptable”, but it upheld the single Bench’s directive for compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the family. It also asked the government to allow a maximum of 10 family members of Amir Magray to perform some last rituals at the Wadder Payeen graveyard.
Amir’s family challenged the division bench order in the Supreme Court.
On September 11, 2022, the Supreme Court dismissed the family’s plea for the exhumation of the body, saying there was nothing to show that the deceased was not given a decent burial.
The top court, however, ordered the administration to pay Rs 5 lakh compensation to the family of the deceased and allow them to offer prayers at the grave of Magrey in line with the Jammu & Kashmir high court orders.
Talking to The Wire, advocate Deepika Pushkar Nath, Magrey’s counsel, said that they had filed a contempt petition in the Supreme Court a few months ago against the J&K government for disobedience of the court’s order.
“After we filed a contempt petition, the J&K government paid compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the family and also allowed them to offer prayers,” she said.
This is for the first time that the J&K government has paid compensation in such a case.
