Protests in Budgam after missing man found dead, probe ordered

Protests erupted in Jammu and Kashmir’s central district of Budgam on Thursday after the mutilated body of a 22-year-old man was found near his home in Peerbagh.

Owais Bashir Malik, a student of a polytechnic college, had left home on Tuesday. His family had filed a missing report in Humhama after he did not return home. Police said Malik’s body was found near a railway track on Thursday morning.

“He had injury marks on his neck and chest. His arm was also dislocated,” a police official at Humhama police station said.

As soon as the news of Malik’s death spread in the area, people, including women, came out protesting on the streets in Peerbagh which borders the Kashmir’s summer capital Srinagar. A spontaneous shutdown is also being observed in the area.

Eyewitnesses said that people hurled rocks at the police headquarters building on the Airport Road. They also threw stones at the policemen manning the streets.

Some men were injured after security forces fired tear gas shells and pellets to disperse the protesters.

Meanwhile, deputy commissioner Srinagar, Farooq Ahmad Lone has ordered a magisterial enquiry into the incident. “ We have asked additional district magistrate, Hamidullah Mir, to look into circumstances of the youth’s death and come with a report within one month,” Lone told.

HT photographer Waseem Andrabi, who was covering the protests, was also injured after he was hit by pellets in his legs. He has been hospitalised and is stable.