Tell Pak to take Naveed Jatt’s body: J&K DGP

Jammu and Kashmir police on Wednesday said that they will write to the Union Home ministry to inform Islamabad to take the body of Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Naveed Jatt, who was killed earlier in the day in Budgam.

Addressing a hurriedly called press conference, here, state police chief Dilbagh Singh said they will approach Pakistan through competent authorities and ask them to claim the body of Jatt.

Sources said the police will take up the matter of handing over the body of Jatt with Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of External Affairs, who in turn could take it up with Pakistani High Commission.

This is for the second 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.

Earlier in August 2017, the J&K police had also tried to send back the body of another Pakistani militant affiliated with LeT, Abu Dujana, in a similar manner. However, it didn’t happen as Pakistan didn’t respond, they said.

After the refusal from Pakistan, Dujana was buried in Uri area of Baramulla district as has been the practice of police with non-local militants over the past few years. The bodies of foreign militants were handed over to local Auqaf committees for burial in the valley.

However, after the killing of top LeT 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.

Jatt from Pakistan was one of the longest surviving foreign militants and was wanted in connection with the assassination of journalist Shujaat Bukhari.