SRINAGAR, India (HRNW) – Thousands of Kashmiris defied the biting winter cold to attend the funerals Friday of two men killed during a security operation, heralding a widespread shutdown in the Indian-administered territory.
The pair — who police said had died in “crossfire” on Monday in a gunfight with suspected separatists had been hurriedly interred by authorities in a remote graveyard.
The deaths sparked anger in the restive region with their families insisting they had no links to the militants, accusing security forces of murdering them in “cold blood” and demanding their bodies be returned for a proper Islamic burial.
Officials on Thursday ordered a probe into the killings of Mohammad Altaf Bhat and Mudasir Ahmed Gul before exhuming their remains and handing them over to relatives amid wails and emotional post-midnight scenes in Srinagar.
Thousands of people turned out for their pre-dawn reburials, with some angry mourners shouting “we want freedom!” and others reciting Quranic verses, an AFP photographer on the scene said.
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