A father who lost his 17-year-old son to an alleged police encounter but was denied the right to bury him dug a grave at his village on Saturday in the hope of getting the body back some day.

A video of a teary-eyed Mushtaq Ahmad digging the grave in his Pulwama village and pleading for his son’s body has been widely circulated on social media.

Class XI student Athar Mushtaq was one of three youths killed in the alleged gunfight in Srinagar on Wednesday. The others were fellow Pulwama resident Aijaz Ahmad Ganai, son of a police head constable, and Shopian resident Zubair Ahmad, brother of two policemen.

Security forces claim the three were over-ground workers for militants and were planning a big strike in Srinagar. However, none of them was listed as a militant in the police records before their death. Their families claim they were innocent boys, kidnapped from their homes and killed in a staged gunfight.

The police’s refusal to hand over the bodies is part of a policy to bury militants in remote areas. The idea is to avert pro-azadi gatherings, which the forces claim generate recruits for the militants.

“I want to tell the DC (deputy commissioner) and SP (superintendent of police) of Pulwama that my son was a kid, a minor who was killed mercilessly, although they claim he was killed in an encounter,” Mushtaq says between sobs in the video.

“(On Wednesday) I went to Srinagar but they did not show even his face to me. Then I went to Gund (in Ganderbal district), accompanying his (Athar’s) sister and mother, but they did not allow me to go beyond that.”

Mushtaq plans a protest in Srinagar on Sunday and has threatened suicide if Athar’s body is not returned.

All three youths were buried in the Sonamarg area of Ganderbal, where dozens of militants killed since last year have been buried too.

Addressing the mothers of army soldiers, Mushtaq said their sons were killing innocent men for rewards and promotions.

As he dug the grave, sloganeering was heard in the background seeking justice for Athar and the return of his body.

The Valley observed a spontaneous shutdown on Friday against the trio’s killing. Former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti has written to lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha seeking a probe.

On Friday, the police tried to rebut the charge of having kidnapped the youths. They said there was digital evidence of Aijaz and Athar travelling to Hyderpora locality in Srinagar before arriving at the site of the alleged gunfight, Hokersar.

“Similarly, Zubair had gone first to Pulwama, then Anantnag, then Shopian to Pulwama and finally came to (the) place of occurrence,” a police statement said.

The police said background checks had revealed that “Aijaz and Ather” were over-ground workers for militants and “variously provided logistic support to terrorists”.

“Antecedents and verifications too show that both were radically inclined and had aided terrorists of LeT (now so-called TRF) outfit,” they said, referring to the Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba.

“One OGW (over-ground worker) presently under police custody has also corroborated Aijaz’s association with LeT terrorist Faisal Mustaq Baba who was killed in Meej (Pampore) encounter in June last year.”