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| Aggrieved family still awaits probe findings | | Kashmir's first custody killing | | Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Feb 14: On February 15, 1975, a youth succumbed to custodial torture. This incidentally was the first reported custody killing of Kashmir. A probe was ordered but thirty-seven years down the line, the aggrieved family still awaits the findings of the probe.
Hectic political activity was going on in February 1975. The Plebiscite Front ratified the Indra-Abdullah accord and Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah assumed office of the Chief Minister with Congress support. The 22-year-old `political wilderness' of the leaders ended. At some places people registered protest.
A young man, Ghulam Muhammad Bulla of Sopore also registered protest in the main chowk of the town. He was taken into custody and reportedly tortured in the local police station. Later, he was shifted to Srinagar Central Jail where he succumbed to torture.
Late in the evening on February 15, 1975 a police van came to a screeching halt in Sopore's Nowhamam area. An ill fated family was called out only to see one of their beloved members lying dead in the van. The hysterical relatives were silenced with rifle butts. The body was finally carried to a graveyard near Degree College and laid to rest by eleven persons in a grave dug by the police.
It was the body of Ghulam Muhammad Bulla who had been tortured to death in police custody. It was wrapped in a shroud and had been washed in the central jail, Srinagar where Bulla had been lodged for a couple of days after his arrest.
The incident evoked severe reaction in the apple town. Thousands of people defying curfew restrictions came out and raised slogans against the police. The government responded by appointing the then SDM, Srinagar as enquiry officer. The police, however, restrained people from appearing before the commission. The findings of the commission have not been made public till date. The SDM offered compensation to the aggrieved family. The family rejected it.
The quest for justice continues to this day. People close to the family want a case of murder registered against the guilty. |
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