Distraught family members of martyred police officer Mohd Ayoub Pandith Friday raised several questions over the sequence of events preceding lynching by a group of ‘hooligans’ outside Jamia Masjid in Nowhatta area of Srinagar.
While mourners gathered in large numbers to pay tributes to their loved one, close relatives claimed Pandith was targeted by the attackers as they believed he was a Kashmiri Pandit.
One of his sisters claimed attackers lynched him since he was carrying identity card which had his name written as MA Pandit.
She claimed it’s the fault of police also as he was left alone in the crowd to defend himself. The wailing relatives also questioned the hardline separatists Sayeed Ali Shah Geelani. “Where is Geelani nowIJ” said another relative. “Is this the azadi (freedom) we are fighting for that we have started lynching peopleIJ What shall we do with such AzadiIJ” she asked.
“Our children are getting orphaned. They (the mob) did not just kill one person, but three more with him,” she said, referring to Pandith’s wife and two kids.
The sisters of the slain police officer have even questioned the Islam practised by the attackers. They said how could someone be attacked and killed during this holy month and that too outside the mosque.
“Was he (DySP) an informerIJ What kind of prayers they had come to offerIJ Had they come to read this kind of Namaz onlyIJ” said his wailing sister.
Pandith was very popular among local people in the area. His daughter is studying MBBS in Bangladesh and had joined the family recently to celebrate EID. After joining police services in 1990 on the post of sub-inspector he rose through the ranks to become DySP in 2013 and had served different wings of the State police in his 27-year-old service career.