Hizb-ul-Mujahideen chief Riyaz Naikoo buried quietly, body not handed over to family

Continuing with its strategy to avoid huge funerals of local militants killed in encounters with security forces, authorities in Kashmir buried Hizb-ul-Mujahideen chief Riyaz Naikoo and three other slain ultras quietly at an isolated place in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district.

A local news gathering agency GNS reported that the bodies of four militants, including Naikoo, were not handed over to their families but buried in Sonamarg, Ganderbal, in presence of a magistrate.

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Since mid-April, amid COVID-19 lockdown, bodies of local militants are buried discreetly at faraway places and not handed over to families for the last rites. This is for the first time in the three-decade-old armed-insurgency in Kashmir that bodies of local militants are not being handed over to their families for the last rites.

While officials say it is to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, large militant funerals have long been a source of worry for the authorities in Kashmir.

Earlier, local militants killed in gunfights would be identified immediately and their bodies handed over to families so that they could be buried in their native villages. In the past, thousands gathered for the funerals of militants, chanting pro-freedom slogans.

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“If we allow for identification at encounter sites and permit burial at their native places, huge gatherings might spread infection of COVID-19,” Inspector General Police (IGP), Kashmir, Vijay Kumar, said.

“As per several orders of the government of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir in view of the Disaster Management Act, we have to ensure strict lockdown even during burial. To avoid such situations we are doing burial at safer and isolated places. Being police chief of Kashmir, it’s my legal duty to ensure the safety and security of people,” he added.
However, sources said, the new policy has been implemented to stop ‘glamorized funerals’ of militants which had acted as fertile ground for militants to mobilise opinion in their favour and asking youths to join the militancy.

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“Imagine if Naikoo’s body would have been handed over to his family for the last rites. Thousands of people would have gathered and there would have been gun salutes by his accomplices. It attracts young minds towards militancy,” they said.

35-year-old Naikoo, who was the most wanted commander in Kashmir, had joined militant ranks in May 2012. The former mathematics teacher at a private school was one of the close aides of the Hizbul commander, Burhan Wani, who was killed in Kokernag area of south Kashmir on 8 July 2016.

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In 2018, Naikoo-led Hizb militants kidnapped 11 family members of policemen prompting the police to release his father Asadullah Naikoo from their custody. The police had picked Naikoo’s father from his Awantipora home in south Kashmir, a day after militants had killed four policemen in Shopian. Later, in an audio message, Naikoo had warned the police of dangerous consequences if the relatives of militants were not released.