Cops to ask Pak High Commission to take back militant's body

Jammu and Kashmir police is approaching Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi to take back the body of most wanted Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militant Abu Dujana, who was killed in an encounter with security forces in Pulwama on Tuesday.

Sources said Inspector General of Police (IGP), Muneer Khan has sent a letter to police headquarters with the submission that the state government should take up the matter of handing over the body of Dujana with Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of External Affairs, who in turn could take it up with Pakistani High Commission.

Khan confirmed that they are approaching the MHA/MeA to ask the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi to take back the body of Dujana so that his parents and other family members could see him before burial.

However, sources denied the reports in some news channels that Pakistan refused to claim the body of Dujana. "The J&K police's submission to the government of India regarding handing over of Dujana's body is yet pending in the police headquarters. How come Pakistan can refuse to claim the body when no such request has been made so far," they said.

The IGP Khan said if Pakistan refuses to take the body, he (Dujana) will be given proper burial here. Asked whether Dujana would be laid to rest in Uri area of Baramulla district as has been the practice of police with non-local militants over the past few years, Khan evaded a direct answer, saying: “He will be given proper burial in case his country denies he was their national.”

This is for the first time that state police has decided to approach Pakistani authorities to take back the body of a militant since the eruption of militancy in 1990 during which hundreds of Pakistani and other foreign militants were killed in encounters with security forces in the state. In the past, bodies of foreign militants were handed over to local Auqaf committees for burial in the Valley.

However, after the killing of top Lashkar commander Abu Qasim in October 2015 in Kulgam district, thousands of people turned up at his funeral as police handed over his body to locals for burial. Taking a cue from the large participation of people in Qasim’s funeral, police decided not to hand over bodies of foreign militants to locals.

“Since 2015, the body of not a single foreign militant was handed over to locals. Instead, they are being buried silently at Boniyar, Uri near Line of Control,” a source in police said.

27-year-old Dujana from Pakistan, who was killed in an encounter with security forces on Tuesday in Pulwama, was one of the longest living foreign militants who had escaped in at least half a dozen encounters in recent years.