Srinagar: In a thatched, single-storey mud house situated on a hilly terrain in the remote Thatharka Seripora village, which is about 42 kilometers from Ramban district in Jammu and Kashmir, the grieving family of Muhammad Amir Magray has been waiting for his dead body for more than two weeks now.
The 23-year-old Amir was killed in an ‘encounter’ in a three-storey building in the Hyderpora area of Srinagar on November 15 along with three others, whose bodies were buried overnight by the police about 90 kms away from Srinagar in a remote village in Handwara area of north Kashmir.
Amir Magray’s brother shows a picture of Amir on his mobile phone which was clicked in Dal Lake, Srinagar earlier this year in summer. Photo: Adil Abbas
Amir’s mother Mubeena Begum has not eaten anything solid for the past two weeks and more since hearing about her son’s death. She refuses to eat anything until she sees her son’s body, his face, one last time. It takes a 15-minute walk downhill from the village main road to reach their mud house.
“It is more painful that they’re not returning us his dead body now even after killing him,” she says, tears welled up in her eyes as grieving relatives try to console her at home. “My son was innocent. He had gone far away from his home to work in Srinagar. We had so many hopes from him,” she goes on.
Only a day before the encounter, Amir had talked to his brothers, his sister and his mother on phone. They had never imagined that the 17-minute phone call would turn out to be their last conversation with him. He had inquired about his mother’s health on that call, promising to bring some warm clothes for her on his next home visit.
According to the family, after the countrywide COVID-19 lockdown earlier last year, Amir had returned home from Deoband in Uttar Pradesh, where he was pursuing Quranic Studies. After staying at home for some months, he left for Srinagar to work in the office of a property dealer Dr. Mudasir Gul (also killed in the same encounter) in the Hyderpora area where he was also provided accommodation.
He wanted to earn as well as pursue further studies. He had done a Hafiz Quran course in a Darul Uloom in Hyderpora in 2015 after which he did another Aalim course in Darul Uloom Rahimiya in Bandipora. The family shows his previous ID cards and a certificate issued by Darul Uloom Rahimiya. There is a shelf full of his books in his room including a white dastar (headwear) lying in one shelf corner which he had got from Deoband.
Book collection of Amir Magray, 23, including his dastar, in his room. Photo: Adil Abbas
Amir’s elder sister Mehmoona, who also used to stay with him in the same room, had returned home some days before the encounter. She says, “Amir worked as an office assistant in Dr. Gul’s office chamber, working hard from mornings to evenings, cleaning tables and making tea for the visitors. He was paid a monthly salary of about Rs 8000-10,000, some of which he would send home. He would also give some money to his three younger brothers whenever they needed it to buy books.”
“What the police called a hideout was actually our room with our clothes and other stuff in it,” says Mehmoona. “There’s also a CRPF bunker near the building.”
“Every morning the CRPF troops would come with their dogs and would frequently enter the gate of the building. How can a terrorist hideout be at such a heavily secured place?” she asks.
“How come all the CCTV cameras inside the building have been removed. They also said that the cameras outside the building on the road are defunct. How come all these cameras which could reveal a lot about this encounter are not working now?” asks an angry relative who accompanied the family to Srinagar the next day after the encounter.
Amir’s young brother says Amir was innocent and that he was murdered.
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“They can kill an innocent person and later place a pistol or some other weapon near his body but that doesn’t make him a militant unless there is solid proof,” he says.
“He used to work hard from early mornings even in the cold cleaning up everything. He worked hard to earn a living. Now we are even denied his dead body,” says Mehmmona as she breaks down. “Please return his body now. We just want to see his face one last time and bury him close to our home here.”
Amir’s father, Muhammad Latief Magray, says when they reached Srinagar the next day after the encounter and sought his body, the station house officer of a local police station told him that his son was a “militant” and that they had buried him overnight.
“He told me that my son was a militant and that he was giving refuge to militants,” recalls Magray. “I was grieving and told him what are you saying and where is the proof.”
Amir Magray’s father Mohammad Lateef Magray outside his mud house in Thatharka Seripora village, about 40 kms from Ramban district. Amir was one of the four killed by security forces in Hyderpora, Jammu and Kashmir on November 14, 2021. Photo: Adil Abbas
On November 26, Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbag Singh in a press conference held in Jammu said that the special investigation team (SIT) was continuing its probe into the Hyderpora encounter. The DGP said that the SIT would come out with “evidence about the foreign militant who was provided shelter there.”
“Unfortunately, people are looking at the killers as innocent people. An SIT has been constituted by the zonal police (Kashmir). Give them (us) time to come out with some specific mention on the progress of the case as we are still working on important aspects of the Hyderpora encounter,” the DGP had said.
Magray says that if they had been guided properly and told about other families who held a sit-in protest in Srinagar’s press enclave demanding bodies of their loved ones, they would also have joined them in the protest to demand their son’s body instead of returning home.
“We were all grieving and restless. We were not familiar with Srinagar and we could hardly locate the concerned police station,” he says. He recently visited Srinagar to record his statement with the government-appointed SIT probing the Hyderpora encounter. He says he has told the police to show them the proof that his son was a “militant”.
“Give us proof that he was a militant, then we won’t even ask for his dead body,” he says. “But till then please return his dead body so that we can see him one last time and bury him properly here.”
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“Even after his body is returned to us and if he is proved to be a militant, they can take back his body from the grave here,” he adds while repeatedly urging the authorities to return his son’s body. “Now that he is dead, we want to bury him closer to us so that we can visit his grave here and pray for his soul from time to time.”
The family is also seeking an independent judicial inquiry into the encounter. Amir’s sister says the police changed their statement on his killing by calling him different names including “militant associate”, “hybrid militant”, etc., in their subsequent statements and press conferences.
“Please have some mercy on our family now,” she pleads. “If they have returned the other two dead bodies, why can’t they return my brother’s body now?”
Days before the encounter, Amir had spoken to his father, telling him that he will try to work harder and save more money in the future so that they can renovate their old mud house and add more rooms and a new bathroom. Now his father is pleading everywhere for the return of his dead son’s body, which was buried, without their knowledge, in a remote village in Handwara.
“We are all unable to rest and eat anything unless his dead body is returned to us,” says Magray. “Even if a militant is killed, his family has every right to seek his dead body.”
Local villagers say they were always proud of Amir who was good in everything he did. The villagers and neighbours remember him as a humble, hardworking young man who always helped anyone from the village who reached out to him.
“We have lost one of the best young men this village has produced,” says a neighbour of the family. He says Amir would also lead Taraweeh prayers in their local mosque whenever he was home during the month of Ramazan.
“We have all prayed for him in the mosque,” he says. “Now we are waiting for his dead body to arrive so that we can pray for his soul.”
For the past two weeks, Amir’s grieving mother has been on medication and has taken injections. She has high blood pressure. Inconsolable, sometimes she suddenly wakes up in the middle of the night whenever she catches little sleep.
“Amir seab ava mae? (Has my Amir returned?),” she shouts in half-sleep. “Mae devun Amir…” (Return my Amir).
