Footage showing commotion and suggesting anguish after police allegedly snatched the body of hardline separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani for burial amid a scuffle with the women of the household on Wednesday night has left the Jammu and Kashmir administration red-faced and brought under stress the police claim of acting as facilitators in the last rites.
The video clip shows women crying, apparently moments before Geelani’s body was taken out forcibly. A lone policeman wearing a mask is seen trying to prevent the protesting men from chasing the police as somebody shuts the door on them. Whether the body was forcibly taken away is not clear from the footage.
“We will not allow you…,” a woman is heard crying. “Abba…,” cries another.
The police on Saturday filed an FIR under the anti-terror UAPA for draping the coffin in the Pakistani flag and raising pro-azadi slogans.
Geelani died at 10.30pm. At 3am, the family said, the police snatched the body and he was buried before dawn.
“We were not allowed to move out…. They had everything, from the coffin to the shroud, ready. The grave was already dug. They were not allowing us to do anything. We told them either allow us to have his funeral bath or do whatever you want at the barrel of a gun,” a relative said.