Funeral held for Pakistani prisoner killed in Indian Kashmir - The Express Tribune
RAWALAKOT: A Pakistani man, who was held in Indian Kashmir prison for over six years, before being killed in a bomb blast while being transported for a court hearing, was buried on Saturday in Rawalakot after his body was returned by India, officials said.
A charged crowd of around 5,000 people attended the funeral of Waheed Noor Khan in Rawalakot, Azad Kashmir and chanted slogans against India.
Officials described the return of Khan’s body as the first time such an exchange had happened.
“It has happened for the first time that India has handed over the body of an alleged militant to Pakistan,” Hamid Mughul, a senior administration official in Azad Kashmir, told AFP.
Khan had been arrested by Indian forces around six years ago while he was allegedly crossing the border. He was charged on four counts, but was acquitted of three of those charges in Indian Kashmir.
While being transported to court on June 20 to hear on a fourth and final case in the town of Saupur, a bomb blast left him dead.
“He was our fighter, he gave his life for liberation of Kashmir, his martyrdom gives a new zeal to all the liberation fighters of Kashmir, we will fight till India runs away,” Syed Salahudeen, chief of the United Jihad Council, claimed in his address.
Blast in police vehicle; former militant, cop killed
An under-trial former militant and a cop were killed on Saturday when a grenade exploded inside a police vehicle in mysterious circumstances at Hygam in North Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
The police vehicle was carrying the former militant back from a court in Sopore town to Srinagar Central Jail.
Waheed Noor Khan, 35, son of Noor Khan of Rawlakote in Pakistan administered Kashmir (PaK) died on spot and four policemen were wounded as the grenade reportedly exploded inside a police gypsy bearing no. JK02BK-1644 at Hygam village on Baramulla-Srinagar highway.
“A foreign militant died on spot and four policemen were wounded after a grenade exploded inside a police vehicle,” Deputy Inspector General of Police, North Kashmir, Gareeb Das told Greater Kashmir. “The police vehicle was transporting the militant from Sopore court to Central Jail Srinagar,” Das said. “We are investigating how the grenade was carried into the police vehicle and how it exploded.”
The wounded policemen were shifted to a Srinagar hospital where one of them succumbed to his injuries during treatment. The deceased cop has been identified as Constable Abdul Majid.
Waheed Noor Khan was arrested on August 23, 2010, from SMHS Hospital in Srinagar where he was undergoing treatment.
He was facing trial under sections 302, 307 RPC, section 20 of Unlawful Activities Act and Egress and Ingress Movement (Control) Ordinance. Police had registered two FIRs against him one each in Karan Nagar and Sopore police stations.
He was lodged in Central Jail Srinagar and was produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate Sopore, Kaiser Qureshi, for hearing at 1.30 pm.