Kashmir protests erupt after alleged cover-up of death in custody – The Guardian

Police in the Indian state of Kashmir have been accused of killing a young man in their custody and then staging his death as an accident.

Protests erupted in the conflict-ridden state after details of the allegations concerning the death of Irfan Ahmad Dar, a shopkeeper, emerged on Wednesday. In response, the government cut off the internet in his hometown of Sopore.

The family of Dar, 23, have alleged he was arrested on Tuesday and then tortured in police custody. Dar was dead within hours of his detention.

According to police, Dar died trying to escape from police custody. Taking advantage of darkness and terrain, he managed to escape, police alleged. They said his body had been found near a stone quarry, but did not state a cause of death.

The police claimed Dar was working for insurgents and that two Chinese-made grenades were recovered from his possession. However, this version of events was disputed by his family and called into question by politicians.

At their home in Sopore, Dars brother Javaid Akbar, who was also detained on Monday but let go close to midnight, said he was assured by police that Dar would be released in the morning.

We should at least be given his body so we can have a proper burial, said Akbar. However, as part of a new policy in Kashmir, alleged insurgents are now given remote burials in forests to prevent large crowds gathering at the funerals in mourning. Dar was buried just under 100 miles away from his family home.

Sajad Lone, a Kashmiri politician who had previously allied with the Indian prime minister Narendra Modis Bharatiya Janata party, said the polices version of events just doesnt add up.

Lone said: They have done a bad job even at inventing a story. The guilty need to be punished.

The death came at a time when Indian government forces are announcing near-daily detentions and arrests of civilians on charges of supporting insurgents, after the removal of Kashmirs semi-autonomous powers in August 2019, which brought the state under the full control of the central Indian government.

It is the second time in recent months that an alleged staged killing has occurred in Kashmir, after it emerged that the deaths of three civilians at the hand of the Indian army in July had been concealed and staged to look like the killing of three armed insurgents.

Both incidents have raised fears in the region of the return of staged gunfights and extrajudicial killings by police and military, which have been a frequent feature of life in Kashmir over the past decades. In 2010, a faked gunfight led to months of demonstrations.

Hasnain Masoodi, a politician from Kashmir, raised Dars alleged custodial killing in parliament on Wednesday and said the oppression and atrocities are not going to fetch any results and would further widen the gulf.

After the unconstitutional decision of 5 August 2019, a story of oppression is being scripted thousands were detained and now the oppression has been [taken] to new levels with fake encounters and custodial deaths, said Masoodi.

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Kashmir protests erupt after alleged cover-up of death in custody - The Guardian