Ghulam Mohammad Bhat, 65, became Kashmir’s first prisoner to die in a far away jail in Naini since August 5, when mass arrests preceded the scrapping of special status of Jammu and Kashmir. Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) told the Parliament that around 5161 people were detained under ‘preventive measures’ and most of them were shifted to jails outside Jammu and Kashmir.
Bhat was arrested on July 17 for his affiliation with Jamaat-eIslami (JeI), a socio-religious party that was banned by BJP government in February 2019; in run-up to the last Lok Sabha polls. Five months later, he died on December 20, in Uttar Pradesh’s Naini jail.
Back home, his family was happy to learn that Bhat’s PSA was quashed and he would be released in January. His son, Mohammad Haneef, a labourer told reporters that owing to their strained financial conditions they were unable to visit their father. It was only after the police gave him an air ticket that he was able to visit Naini. He went to see his father and was told he is no more.
“The jail officials said that my father expired on 11:20 pm on Friday [December 20]. They didn’t tell me how he had died. They just led me to the jail mortuary and asked me to identify my father’s body. The body was then taken for an autopsy,” Haneef was quoted saying. He then left from jail along with the corpse around 2.30 am on December 22 and straightaway reached his home Bonapara (Handwara) home, where Bhat was laid to rest the same night.
How Bhat died is a mystery to his family. They claim he lacked any ailments barring his limping leg, also an outcome of his earlier interrogation.
LETHPORA AFTERMATH
This story is from the January 04, 2020 edition of Kashmir Life.
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This story is from the January 04, 2020 edition of Kashmir Life.
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