Youth tortured by J&K militants dies

Srinagar: A 20-year-old youth, who was tortured during captivity by suspected militants in Jammu and Kashmir’s southern Kulgam district earlier this month, died in a Srinagar hospital overnight, the police said here on Thursday.

Omais Rashid Bhat was briefly detained by a group of gunmen at an unknown place in Kulgam after he was waylaid by them on March 8 evening. He was released soon but in an injured condition and doctors who attended on him later had said that he had been severely beaten up, resulting in both internal and external injuries to him.

Bhat succumbed to his injuries at Srinagar’s Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences during the intervening night of March 21 and 22, the police said. It has registered a case against unknown assailants under Section 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder) against the unknown men.

The police and local sources said that Bhat had been accused of “having gone astray and being involved in anti-movement activists” by his captors.

A day after he was left half dead by them at Ves Batpora, a few kilometres away from Qaimoh, Bhat’s native village where from he had been kidnapped, the local clerics received copies of a letter with the request that it be read loud by them during Friday congregational prayers at mosque.

The letter had also accused Bhat of being involved in “anti-movement” activities. It also said that it should serve as warning to all those people who were involved in “dubious activities.”

However, the letter did not mention the name of any organisation which chose to “punish” Bhat.