Srinagar, April 17 (Inditop.com) The family of a 70-year-old man killed by the army on April 14 in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district has refuted claims that he was a separatist guerrilla.
“Raj Mohammad Khan, a resident of Devar Lolab village, has come forward and identified the photograph of the 70-year-old man as his father Habibullah Khan,” a police officer in Kupwara said Saturday.
“Raj Mohammad Khan has also said that his father was a beggar and used to leave home and return after four or five days. When he did not return this time we were anxious. I was shocked to see my father’s photograph in a local newspaper,” the officer said.
Police have sent a team to Devar Lolab village to verify the family’s claim about the antecedents of the slain man.
“According to the FIR lodged by the army, the slain man was a militant killed during an encounter. The army also said that they recovered arms and ammunition from him,” the police officer said.
Asked whether police were a part of the operation during which Habibullah Khan was killed, the police officer said it was not a joint operation and the army had carried it out on their own.
Police have now called village elders from Devar Lolab so that the proceeding for the exhumation of the body could be started.
“His son has come forward to claim the body and we will have to follow the procedure in this case,” a senior police officer said here.
