Police head constable Maqbool Ahmad Ganai lost his son and constable Irfan Ahmad Lone his brother in Wednesday’s purported gunfight in Srinagar, but a question both policemen are asking is how their kin went on to become militants, procure weapons, reach Srinagar and plan an attack in a matter of a few hours.

The army on Wednesday said they had killed three militants — Aijaz Ahmad, Zubair Ahmad and Athar Mushtaq — in an overnight operation on the outskirts of Srinagar in Hokersar. The killings have triggered a political storm after their families claimed the three were innocent and killed in a staged gunfight. They are not listed as militants in police records.

Aijaz, 21, and Zubair, 24, belonged to police families. Athar, the youngest of the three and a Class XI student, was the only son of his businessman father.

Aijaz and Athar, who lived in Pulwama, knew each other but their families said they did not know Shopian resident Zubair or his family.

While Aijaz’s father Maqbool is a head constable, Zubair’s two elder brothers, including Irfan, are in the police, one a constable and another a mason.

The families questioned the security forces’ claim and said it did not have a leg to stand on.

“My son left home at 1pm on Tuesday for Pulwama Degree College in connection with his final-year exams, which is to start on January 8. He was to apply for university after that. Around 2.30pm, he was seen by eyewitnesses in company of Athar at a tea shop in the town (Pulwama),” Aijaz’s father Maqbool told The Telegraph.

“The encounter started at 5pm. How can it happen that they got weapons from somewhere, passed 50 nakas (checkpoints) to reach Srinagar and were not stopped anywhere? All this so fast? What was the army doing all this while?”

Zubair’s brother Irfan had strikingly a similar question.

“My brother was in the shuttering business. He left home like usual and in the evening when he did not return, we called him but his mobile phone was switched off. Some acquaintances told us they saw him near the bus stand (at Shopian) around 2-2.30 during the day,” the police constable said.

“Ask anybody, how is it possible that in the next two hours, he became a militant, got training to use weapons and reached the place (of the alleged gunfight in Srinagar 70km away)?” Irfan asked.

The families said they were shocked when the police called them up directly or through indirect means to inform them that their children were militants and had been killed in a gunfight.

“I was wondering how it could happen but when I reached the police control room in Srinagar yesterday (Wednesday), I found three bodies lying on stretchers. My son’s body was third in the row. I was devastated,” head constable Maqbool said.

Maqbool said what pained him more was that his son had been on 35 days’ bed rest on doctor’s advice following a surgery.

“On Sundays, I would accompany him to the doctor for follow-up. He left home for the first time on his own on Tuesday,” Maqbool said.

The three bodies were buried in far-off Sonamarg, as part of a new strategy to deny families the bodies of alleged militants, lest it attract crowds and give new recruits to militancy.

Director-general of police Dilbag Singh on Thursday said he had no reason to dispute the army’s claim that the three youths were militants, but said they would still investigate the matter.

He said families were at times not aware of the involvement of their wards in militant activities.

“It is not important that every militant is listed with the police. When a person leaves his home to join (militancy), he doesn’t tell his parents,” Singh said.

The army maintains that a joint operation involving men from different forces was launched at 5.30pm on Tuesday, leading to the death of three militants on Wednesday morning.

A police statement on Wednesday evening, however, said the cordon-and-search operation was conducted by 2 Rashtriya Rifles, which was fired upon and thereafter a police component and a CRPF quick action team rushed to the spot.

No top police officer was present at the media conference on Wednesday to give details of the purported encounter. It was addressed by counter-insurgency Kilo Force Major General H.S. Sahi. Usually, the DGP or IGP addresses such conferences.

“Although the three killed terrorists in the encounter were not mentioned in our list of terrorists, yet two of them are hardcore associates of terrorists. Pertinently, one of the two is a relative of top HM (Hizb-ul-Mujahideen) commander Rayees Kachroo who was killed in 2017,” a spokesman said. The police did not say who among the three was Kachroo’s relative.

The families of Aijaz and Zubair said they were not related to Kachroo or any other militant. This newspaper could not contact Athar’s relatives.

The families are seeking justice and want the bodies of their kin to be returned to them so that they can give them a proper burial.