Local Muslims disallow burial of Pak militants in their cemeteries

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, September 19

As local Muslims refused to give space to three slain terrorists, believed to be Pakistan nationals, in their graveyards, their bodies were buried in an undisclosed location by the authorities to avoid confrontation.

“The administrators of all cemeteries (in Kakryal area) refused to give space to the slain terrorists. Due to opposition of people, we buried all of them in an undisclosed location,” said Superintendent of Police, Katra, Naresh Singh.

Three terrorists of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) outfit were eliminated during a daylong gun battle on September 13 at Dirthi village in the Kakryal area of Reasi district.

“For the last five days the bodies of the terrorists were laying in the mortuary of a hospital. The civil and police administration earlier tried to bury these terrorists in the nearby graveyards but this move was strongly opposed by the local Muslims,” a source said, adding that the local Muslims declared that they would not allow their burial in the surrounding areas as well.

Fearing a backlash, the authorities on September 17 night buried the militants in an undisclosed location.

“Muslims of Reasi district had declared that their cemeteries had no space for terrorists, who have no religion,” Tariq Bhat, ex-administrator of Auqaf, Reasi, told The Tribune. “The ideology of terrorists is against the tenets of Islam. They are not only enemies of Islam but of the whole humanity,” added Bhat.

He recalled that former Imam of Reasi had refused to perform “namaz-e-janaza” of two Pakistan terrorists killed six years ago.

It is not the first time that local Muslms have not allowed burial of terrorists in their graveyards. Earlier bodies of terrorists involved in the Nagrota (November 2016) and Sunjwan (February 2018) terror attacks were also buried at undisclosed locations.