The Magray family of Ramban district paid their respects at Amir Magray’s tomb in Kupwara, north Kashmir, after a lengthy court fight.
Magray was one of four individuals slain on November 15, 2021 at Hyderpora, a suburb of Srinagar. Kupwara police claimed the dead men were militants and buried them in a cemetery.
His father, Mohammad Latief, expressed relief after visiting his son’s tomb and praying for him.
Lateif said that the Rs 5 lakh awarded to his family by the Jammu and Kashmir government removed the “blot of terrorism” off his reputation.
On Sunday, Latief, his wife, and eight other relatives from the Wadoora hamlet in the Handwara area in north Kashmir said ‘Fateh Khawani (special prayers)’ at the tomb.
In 2020, the Jammu and Kashmir Police decided to prevent a law and order problem by not turning over the remains of “terrorists” to their families and instead burying them in secret locations.
However, the Jammu and Kashmir government eventually caved to public pressure and returned the corpses of two people to their families: Altaf Ahmad Bhat and Dr. Mudasir Gul.
After Latief was denied access to Magray’s remains, he went to the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, where he finally received some relief in May 2022, when a single-bench judge ordered the exhumation of the body and the giving it over to the family for last rites, along with a compensation of Rs 5 lakh.
However, if the corpse is “highly putrefied and is not in deliverable state or is likely to pose risk to public health and hygiene,” the court ruled that the petitioner and his close family might say their last goodbyes at the cemetery.
In such a case, “the state shall pay to the petitioner (Latief) a compensation of Rs 5 lakh for deprivation of his right to have the dead body of his son and give him a decent burial according to the family traditions, religious obligations, and faith which the deceased professed when he was alive,” the order read.
The original judgement was changed by a high court division, which allowed the family to continue performing the rites but ordered the Jammu and Kashmir government to pay the compensation.
A subsequent Special Leave Petition by Latief was submitted to the Supreme Court.
To which the Supreme Court said, “It will be too much at this stage to disinter the body and the dead should not be disturbed and some sanctity should be attached to the grave.”
On Sunday, with the help of the police, we paid our respects at our son’s cemetery. On July 21st, I received the compensation payment of Rs 5 lakh in my bank account. Latief, speaking to PTI from his home in Ramban’s Sangaldan, said, “This proves beyond a reasonable doubt that my son was innocent and was not a terrorist.”
As a result, he added, they can rest easy and express their gratitude to the Supreme Court and the high court for doing the right thing.
Latief, a recipient of a state bravery medal for murdering a militant in his village with stones at the height of militancy some two decades ago, said that the police had taken care of all the details for the ‘Fateh Khawani’ at the burial.
On Twitter, Deepika Pushkar Nath, Latief’s lawyer, shared her joy at the completion of posthumous rites at her client’s son’s burial. (PTI)
