Srinagar: “I just want his murderer to be killed by bullets in the same way,” wailed Iram Jan, the daughter of Bashir Ahmad Khan, at her home in HMT area of Srinagar. Bashir Khan, said to be a kind and religious person, had shifted to HMT from downtown Srinagar some years ago. Now he lies buried at the martyrs’ graveyard in Eidgah for eternity.
Khan’s family members do not believe the police version that Bashir Khan was killed when militants opened fire on paramilitary CRPF and policemen at Sopore on Wednesday morning.
Khan’s nephew, Aijaz, told Kashmir Reader, “I saw his bullet-strewn body. To see how he had died, I inspected his car, which had not even a single bullet mark. I even checked its bottom. I don’t know how he was taken out from the car, laid on the ground, and how the little kid was sitting on his dead body.”
The little kid he was referring to was Iram’s 3-year-old son. Pictures of him sitting on the dead body of his grandfather were shared on social media and shown on TV news channels. Iram said that her father was taken out from his car by government forces and killed on the road.
“My father has been taken from me. This is an extreme form of repression. I need justice,” Iram said.
Aijaz said that his uncle had left for Handwara to fetch their housemaid from there. He left early in the morning in his Alto 800 car. His grandson, who was deeply attached to him, had insisted on going along with him, Aijaz said.
“The claims made by the police are not backed by any evidence,” Aijaz said. “Rest only Allah knows.”
Bashir Khan is survived by his ailing wife, for whom he was going to fetch the maid to do household work, and his four children – three sons and a daughter, one of whom is still unmarried.
Bashir had on Tuesday evening spoken to the maid on the phone. She had told him to fetch her from her home as he could not find transport.

Junaid Nabi Bazaz