Srinagar, April 11: Despite orders from a chief judicial magistrate, the Sopore police is refusing to file a First Information Report (FIR) in the death of 16-year-old Zubair-ul-Hassan Bhat who drowned while being chased by violent police and paramilitary forces during last year’s unrest, the victim’s father said.
Despite the court orders, the police are refusing to register a case in the incident, which took place on April 13, a year ago.
Father of the victim in a media interview said that Zubair, who did not know swimming, died when his friends lost the fight to save him in the heavy teargas shelling from a bridge by the police. He said that the boys had been heading for playing cricket and had to face a party of paramilitary troops while coming out of a lane in the Khanaqah-e-Mu’alla area.
Zubair Bhat, who did not know swimming, died when his friends lost the fight to save him in the heavy police tear-gas shelling and stone-pelting from the bridge while nearly six boys struggled for life in the river below, he told media men.
With his elder son, Ahsan-ul-Haq, having already fallen to bullets in 1994, the grieving father does not want any ex-gratia relief or compensatory employment from the government, but only seeks justice for his other young boy, barely out of high school, who was killed in tragic circumstances exactly one year ago
The senior Bhat has been fighting a desperate battle since, trying to get the police to do the bare minimum of registering an FIR, but has been thwarted at every step, with no one in the police prepared to lend an ear of sympathy.
Zubair had jumped into the Jhelum along with five other friends while fleeing from police and paramilitary forces during a protest strike day in Sopore on April 13 last year, his father said. The boys had been heading for a game of cricket and had run into a forces party while coming out of a lane in the Khanaqah-e-Mu’alla in the town, he said.
Terrified when signalled by the paramilitary forces to stop, the boys took to their heels, with the police and the paramilitary men in hot pursuit, and jumped into the river to escape, Zubair’s father added.
“On learning that my son had jumped into the river, I rushed to the bridge where the police were pumping tear gas shells (into the river). I implored with the local police officers to save the boys,” he said.
“My wife fell on their feet, beseeching them to stop the shelling and firing so that the boy could be pulled out. But they paid no heed,” he cried. “Instead, they threatened to kill us also,” he voiced.
“Three of the boys swam to safety, and two others who were trying to pull Zubair to the bank lost their grip in the face of the tear-gas shelling and stone-pelting from the police, and my son drowned,” he further added.
Bhat’s lone year-long battle for justice took him to the chief judicial magistrate who recently issued an order for the Sopore police to register an FIR, but the latter has taken no action.
More than the hard-heartedness of the police and indifference of the ruling classes, Bhat is bitter at the pro-freedom leadership which, he says, only issued statements over his son’s death but did not bother to come in person to see the family’s plight. Agencies