Valley’s youngest missing in custody still untraceable

Govt says he was killed; family demands body

Arif Shafi Wani

(from greaterkashmir.com)

Srinagar, Mar 7: Muhammad Iqbal Shah holds an unenviable distinction in the Valley of woes: he was 14 when BSF soldiers arrested him, never to return. Thus, he’s the youngest among thousands of Kashmiris who disappeared in custody.

Iqbal, a student of Wagoora Varmul, was working hard to pass his matriculation examination when troops of 163 battalion of paramilitary Border Security Force arrested him on March 13, 1995. “He was brutally tortured and all our attempts to rescue him proved futile,” his father Muhammad Yousuf said.

Though troops released his two classmates who were arrested a day before him, but there was no trace of Iqbal. The family approached the BSF camp but they denied his arrest.

“The assurances of the then Senior Superintendent of Police Muneer Khan, Deputy Commissioner and Lt. Gen M A Zaki, advisor to Governor, too proved futile,” Yousuf said.

Shattered, the family filed a Habeas Corpus petition in the High Court for locating the Iqbal’s whereabouts. On July 16, 1996, it directed the District and Sessions Judge Varmul to hold an inquiry.

After receiving the report, which confirmed the arrest of Iqbal, the Court finally disposed off the case on April 6 1999, with the direction to conduct an investigation and conclude the same in accordance with the law.

On Court directions a case under FIR no 88/99 under sections 346 RPC was registered at Police Station Varmul. Acting on court directions, District Magistrate Varmul formed a four-member committee comprising Additional District Magistrate Varmul as its Chairman, Deputy Superintendent of Police Varmul, Tehsildar and SHO Police Station Varmul as members.

“During the course of investigation all the legal formalities were completed, statements of witnesses were recorded and it was established that M C Heldar Deputy Commandant and J N Singh Assistant Commandant of 163 Battalion BSF are involved in the case and offence Sec 346 (abduction) has been proved against them,” the committee in its report said.

The Committee quoting a report of Director General of Police addressed to Principal Secretary on September 8, 2000 said, “On March 1995 personnel of BSF’s 163 battalion raided the house of Muhammad Iqbal, Muhammad Ibrahim and Ghulam Mohiuddin Mir of Wagoora. All of them were ruthlessly beaten in BSF vehicles towards Anantnag (Islamabad). Two of them namely Muhammad Ibrahim and Ghulam Muhammad were left in serious condition at unknown places whereas whereabouts of Muhammad Iqbal were not known.”

“After taking into consideration all aspects and reports received from different headquarters, we reached at the conclusion that Muhammad Iqbal Shah son of Muhammad Yousuf Shah of Wagoora, who was a student of 10th class is presumed to be killed and his dead body has been disposed off somewhere,” the report said.

“Despite the declaration that my son was killed by the BSF men, neither has his body been handed over to me nor the accused punished,” his father said.

“We have suffered enough for the past seven years, now we want justice,” he said.

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