SPO, brother laid to rest amid sobs and shrieks
Condemnations continue to pour in
Srinagar: Amid shrieks and sobs, Special Police Officer (SPO) Ishfaq Ahmad and his brother Umer Dar were laid to rest in Chattabugh village of central Kashmir’s Budgam district on Sunday as hundreds attended their funeral.
The duo was shot at by terrorists at their residence Chatabugh in Budgam last night, police said.
While SPO Ishfaq Ahmad was declared brought dead at SKIMS Bemina hospital, his brother, a student, succumbed to injuries later, police said.
Hundreds of people, including women thronged the house of two slain brothers Sunday morning after hearing about the tragedy, local sources said.
They said that women were sobbing and shrieking and also showering the dead bodies with flower petals and candies while the mourning male crowd was reciting religious hymns.
Both the killed brothers were liked by one and all in the locality, locals said, adding, “We wonder how anyone could have found the heart to kill these everloving and jolly brothers.”
Meanwhile, senior police officers including Kashmir Police Chief visited the family of the slain SPO and offered their condelences.
“IGP Kashmir accompanied by DIG CKR Sgr & SSP Budgam visited family of Martyr Ishfaq Ahmad & paid heartfelt condolence to the bereaved family members who lost 2 family members in terrorist attack. IGP Kashmir assured them that whole police parivaar stands with the bereaved family,” Kashmir Police Zone tweeted.
Earlier, a wreath-laying ceremony was held at the District Police Lines in Budgam for the slain SPO where the deputy commissioner and the senior superintendent of police led police personnel in paying floral tributes to him.
PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, while expressing condolences to the family, said death and destruction have become a norm in Kashmir Valley.
“In Kashmir we watch helplessly as young lives are snuffed out. Death & destruction have become the norm. Sadly GOI doesn’t seem to care since Kashmiri lives have little value for them. Deepest condolences to the family,” she wrote on Twitter.
Condemning the killings, CPI(M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami termed it heinous and barbaric, and demanded that perpetrators be identified and brought to book.
“It has sent shock waves into the whole region and everyone is pained and grieved,” he said.
The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference on Sunday unreservedly condemned the brutal killings of siblings SPO Ishfaq Ahmad and his brother in central Kashmir’s Chadbugh village of Budgam.
While condemning the killings, Dr Farooq and Omar Abdullah said that such killings question the government’s claims on peace and normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir.
They said the killings of Ishfaq and his brother is yet another addition to the scores of others who lost their precious lives this year. The duo expressed sympathies and condolences with the bereaved and prayed for peace to the departed in the highest stations of Jannat.
