Srinagar: The death of a 23-year-old Kashmiri youth after he was picked up by the security forces for interrogation in connection with a recent militancy-related incident that had occurred in the southern district of Kulgam sparked protests and a call for an impartial probe by political parties on Sunday.However, the police claimed that deceased Imtiyaz Ahmad Magray, a labourer by profession, committed suicide by jumping into the gushing Vishaw Nallah while guiding the security forces to a second hideout located near the rivulet banks. They also said that he was an Over Ground Worker (OWG) of the separatist militants and had confessed knowledge of two Pakistani terrorists and their hideout during the interrogation.Magray’s body fished out of the rivulet at Adbal Wattoo in the Damhal Hanji Pora area of Kulgam earlier during the day on Sunday. He was a resident of Kulgam’s Tangmarg village where a brief encounter took place between militants and the security forces on April 23, a day after the Pahalgam terror attack. The officials had said that a joint team of J&K police’s counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) and the Army launched a cordon-and-search operation at Tangmarg after receiving inputs about the presence of militants in the village. Soon the two sides traded fire, prompting the security officials to ask for reinforcements to take on the militants “effectively”. However, the militants managed to flee from the area after which the operation was called off.A police spokesman said that on Sunday morning “a cordon-and-search-operation was launched in the area during which Magray went to the hideout spot (near riverbed) under close supervision videographed via a drone. Consequently, he jumped in Vishaw Nallah, probably trying to escape via a river route.” It is learnt that he was aware of the first terrorist hideout that was busted by security forces in Tangmarg forest area, where contact was established on April 23, the spokesman said, adding that today (Sunday) while locating the second terrorist hideout, he jumped into the river and died by suicide. Legal proceedings have been started in this regard.”However, former chief minister and opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti called for a probe into alleged foul play. “Yet another body has been recovered from a river in Kulgam raising serious allegations of foul play. Local residents allege that Imtiyaz Magray was picked up by the Army two days ago and now, mysteriously, his body has surfaced in the river,” she said in a post on ‘X’. She asserted that the Pahalgam terror attack appears to be a calculated attempt to derail the fragile peace, disrupt tourism in Kashmir and undermine communal harmony across the country.She said, “If a single act of violence can shake the entire system, triggering arbitrary arrests, home demolitions, and the targeting of innocent civilians, then the perpetrators have already achieved their objective. Allegations of misconduct, whether in the Bandipora encounter or in this latest incident in Kulgam, are deeply troubling and warrant a thorough, impartial investigation.”Ruling National Conference (NC) leader and J&K’s education and health minister, Sakina Itoo, said the incident warrants a judicial probe. Asserting that Magray was a poor labourer and had returned home after fifteen days, she said, “When people woke up early in the morning, they were informed that a body was lying in a nallah. The police recovered the body. It needs to be investigated as he was picked and how his body was found in a nallah. The poor family and residents are frightened as to what is happening.”
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