‘Police framed our boys to hide its failure to nab real culprits’

The families of the youth, who have been detained by police in connection with the mobile transmission tower attacks in Sopore town, have accused police of framing them on trumped up charges “to hide their failure to nab the real culprits”.

Police has booked Mohammad Saleem Beig (19), Ghulam Nabi Malla (21), Irshad Ahmad Khan (30) and Imtiyaz Ahmad Najar (28) under Arms Act.

The parents of the detained men came to Srinagar on Tuesday after coming to know that they had been shifted to Special Operation Group (SOG) headquarters (Cargo). They had come to see their dear ones after 15 days but were allowed to meet them only for ten minutes.

“Police is provoking our youth to join militancy. They pick them up, torture and then dub them as militants. My son was called to police station Sopore and we were asked to get lunch for him. As soon as we reached police station with the lunch, he was taken away and sent to some other place. We enquired about it but police officials didn’t respond,” said Mushtaq Beig, father of Saleem Beig.

Beig said his son has been booked under 7/25 Arms Act by the police even as he was innocent and has not been involved in any militant activity.

“Under pressure the police booked them under Arms Act to show the government that they have arrested the tower attackers. They will be later rewarded for the same and our innocent boys will get life imprisonment. This is the reality of Kashmir,” he added.

Another detained youth Irshad happens to be the cousin of Mehraj-u-Din Dar who was killed by unidentified gunmen. Irshad’s father, Ghulam Ahmed Khan who is a government employee said his son was on duty on the day when the attacks took place in the town.

“The SOG men called him to report at the police station and from that day onwards they kept him captive. They also involved our sons in fake recovery case and now police threatens us that we won’t be able to see our sons again if we approach the court,” Khan said.

He said there was no evidence with police to prove that his son was a culprit.

Bakhti Begum, mother of Ghulam Nabi Malla, who had came all the way from Sopore to meet her son told that he runs a tea stall outside police station and used to serve police personnel.

“They imprisoned my son while he had gone to serve them chai (tea). Please pick your blessed pen and help our sons to return home. Police is under pressure this time, they won’t release them at all,” she said.

Bakhti said the youth were bailed out on June 11 but were re-arrested on the same day and shifted to SOG camp (Cargo).

The families of the youth alleged that police would often pick them and harass them unnecessarily and dub them as stone-pelters.

Inspector General of Police, SJM Gillani said police is still investigating their involvement in the tower attacks.

“We are investigating the case and they are in legal custody. If they want any respite, they can get it from the court. They are with us after the directions of the court,” he said.

A senior police official, pleading anonymity, earlier told that Irshad and three others were Over Ground Workers (OGWs) of Hizbul Mujhahideen. “On the basis of our sources, we arrested four persons and recovered some weapons from them,” the police official said.

He alleged that they were also involved in threatening people at the time of elections. “Our sources have informed us that Irshad allegedly hurled a grenade on mobile tower and all the four were also involved in threatening people not to vote during elections.”