NEW DELHI: The family of a 48-year-old man who allegedly took his own life after being named as a suspect in the Poonch terror attack case, has dubbed the magisterial probe ordered by the Jammu and Kashmir administration as an “official cover-up”, The Wire has said.
The case turned more mysterious with reports of an Indian journalist’s phone call transcript suggesting he advised his colleague to hush up the matter.
The report in The Wire said the family, seeking a judicial probe into the death of Mukhtar Hussain Shah, has alleged that the order of the magisterial inquiry was “full of discrepancies”.
“The order reads like an attempt to cover up the truth. It is a farce. We reject it and demand a judicial probe,” said Rafaqat Hussain Shah, Mukhtar’s brother.
Sources at the Rajouri district hospital, where Mukhtar breathed his last on April 27, said that the victim had reportedly consumed some poisonous substance which is suspected to have caused his death. “The exact cause of [his] death will be known once the post-mortem proceedings are completed,” an unnamed source was quoted by The Wire as saying..
Rafaqat claimed that there were “bruises” and “black marks” on Mukhtar’s back and thighs, suggesting that he was tortured in custody. “If he has committed any wrong, let the investigators reveal the facts publicly. Why are they trying to hide the truth?” he said.
Poonch’s senior superintendent of police, Rohit Baskotra, hung up the call when The Wire asked for his comments on the case and what are the charges, if any, against Mukhtar. Deputy commissioner of Poonch, Inder Jeet, said the matter is not within his jurisdiction now as he has been transferred out of the district.
Tahir Mustafa Malik, additional deputy commissioner, Poonch, was appointed as inquiry officer by the J&K administration to conduct an “in-depth magisterial inquiry into the incident and circumstances (that) led to the death” of Mukhtar.
Mukhtar, a farmer from Poonch’s Nar village, died by alleged suicide, days after he was summoned by security agencies for questioning in the Bhata Durian attack case, as per his family.
Barring the youngest child, the rest of his three children study at a local school.
However, a Jammu-based daily reported that Mukhtar was “not a suspect… but was called for questioning like most of the residents of his village that is located near the ambush site”.
“We came to know [that] he was facing domestic issues and was disturbed,” the daily quoted an unnamed official as saying.
While the inquiry order says that the victim consumed poison at his home on April 25, the family dismissed the claim as a “white lie”.
“I got a phone call on Wednesday [April 26] that Mukhtar was lying unconscious on the road. We took him to a hospital in Mendhar and doctors referred us to the Rajouri district hospital on the same day where he passed away on Thursday [April 27] at 12.20am. I don’t know why they have written these lies,” said Rafaqat.
Quoting the family and locals, the inquiry order says that Mukhtar took the grave decision of ending his life “within hours after being asked to report to the police station in Mendhar for questioning in connection with the terror attack on an army vehicle” in Poonch.
However, the family rejected the order as an “eyewash”, claiming that Mukhtar got the first phone call from the security forces on the day of the attack itself, i.e., on April 20. Rafaqat said that Mukhtar went to the police station on the next day. He was detained for two days because of which their family didn’t celebrate Eid.
Former Indian spy chief A.S. Dulat said in a TV interview after the Poonch attack that Kashmiri resistance groups had gone deep underground in the new phase of their struggle, making it difficult for intelligence gathering.
According to reports, there were subdued Eid festivities in Nar, Sanjiote and other villages located in the vicinity of the terror attack in Bhata Durian as the J&K police and the army were actively carrying out raids at several places to find clues about the attackers.
