In 2000, Kashmir family lost son to militants. 26 years later, another son to Army ‘encounter’

Twenty-six years ago, a group of militants raided Ishfaq Ahmad Mughal’s home in Jammu and Kashmir's Ganderbal district, shot him and took him away, bleeding.

The militants had attacked Ishfaq Mughal because of his informal “association” with the Army. The family never saw him again.

Two-and-a-half decades later, the Mughal family lost another son – this time, at the hands of the Army.

On April 1, the Army said it had killed a terrorist in a forest 10 km from the Mughals’ home. But the family alleged that it had killed Ishfaq Mughal’s younger brother, Rashid Ahmad Mughal, in a staged encounter.

“My brother left home for work in the morning,” said Rashid’s elder brother Ajaz Ahmad Mughal. “The next morning, he was dubbed a militant. How did he become a militant in a matter of a few hours?”

A day after Rashid’s killing, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident. The deadline of a week has passed, but there is no update on the magisterial probe.

Scroll’s conversations with Rashid’s family and with villagers at the site of the encounter raises several questions about the Army’s claims.

Ajaz Ahmad Mughal, who was called to identify his brother’s body, claimed that Rashid Mudgal’s body was riddled with 19 bullets, his face had been mutilated to hide his identity and he was not wearing his own clothes or footwear.

Scroll sent questions about the family’s allegations to the Army spokesperson, Jammu and Kashmir’s director-general of police and inspector-general of police, Kashmir. The story will be updated if they respond.

A family that worked for Army

For the Mughal family, the killing of their brother in an alleged fake encounter by the Army is nothing short of an irony.

That’s because not only has the Mughal family suffered at the hands of militants. They have, in fact, actively worked for the Army.

As per the official documents furnished by the family and seen by Scroll, Rashid Mughal’s elder brother Ishfaq Ahmad Mughal, who was abducted by the militants in 2000, was working as a “source” for the Army.

In 2009, the Jammu and Kashmir government had also offered a compensation of Rs 1 lakh to the family over Ishfaq Mughal’s abduction by the militants.

Another brother, Imtiyaz Ahmad Mughal, works as a porter with the Army to earn his livelihood.

Ghulam Rasool Mughal, the uncle of the Mughal brothers, says the family is desperately waiting for justice from the government. “We want his dead body and punishment to those who killed him,” he said. “But first of all, they should remove the label of militant from his name.”

‘Left home for work’

Chunt Waliwar village on the outskirts of Ganderbal district is home to the Mughals, who are members of the pastoral Gujjar community, often described by security forces as their ‘first line of defence’ on the border against infiltration of militants.

Most of the villagers of the tribal community work as small-time farmers or rear sheep in the neighbourhood.

Rashid Ahmad Mughal was an exception. The 28-year-old lost both his parents at a young age. He studied at an orphanage in Srinagar and went on to do his postgraduation in commerce.

The most educated person in the village, he was the one residents turned to when they had to apply for documents like domicile certificates, PAN cards and government certificates for the specially-abled.

“Every day, he would leave home with people’s documents and visit different government offices in the district to get their documents made,” said Ajaz Ahmad Mughal, Rashid Mughal’s brother. “For acting as a bridge between them and the administration, the local residents would usually pay him money. That was his livelihood.”

On the morning of March 31, Rashid left for Ganderbal town along with a bag of documents. “This was his daily routine,” said Ajaz Mughal, who works as a labourer to earn his livelihood. “He would come home by 3-4pm every day.”

But that day, there was no sign of him till late in the evening. “From 7.30 pm to 8.30 pm, I continuously called his number but his phone was switched off,” recalled Ajaz Mughal.

This was unusual. “Even if he stayed for the night with some friend, he would inform us,” Ajaz said. “But that day, there was no communication from his side.”

Around the time the Mughal family was waiting for the return of their brother, the official social media handle of Indian Army’s Chinar Corps in Srinagar posted about an ongoing “operation” in the Arhama area of Ganderbal district, about 10 km from Rashid’s village.

According to the post, a “joint search operation” was launched by the Army and Jammu and Kashmir Police in the area. “During the search, vigilant troops observed suspicious activity. On being challenged, terrorists opened fire and [sic] own troops retaliated,” the post said.

The next morning, the Army’s social media handle posted about the killing of one “terrorist” during the operation. “During the night of 31 Mar 26, the cordon was tactically reorganised amidst the intermittent firing underway. Own troops effectively retaliated …resulting in one terrorist eliminated,” the post said.

Since then, the Army has not released any information about the identity of the killed “terrorist”. Nor has the Jammu and Kashmir police come up with any information regarding Rashid Mughal’s links with militancy.

The Jammu and Kashmir police also did not issue any official statement about the encounter. Usually, both the Army and the Jammu and Kashmir police issue separate press releases and updates about encounters on their social media handles.

Waiting for his return

Though Rashid Mughal did not return home on March 31, Ajaz Mughal left for work in the early hours of April 1. “I assumed his phone may have had some issue and he will return home in the day,” said Ajaz Mughal.

Around 11 am, when Ajaz Mughal was extracting sand on the banks of river Sindh, the police came looking for him. “They told me that my brother had suffered an accident and asked me to come to the Police Control Room in Srinagar.”

Once Ajaz Mughal reached Srinagar, he saw his brother’s lifeless body in an ambulance. “I was shocked. For the first few minutes, I was unable to understand what had happened to my brother,” he recalled.

Ajaz Mughal said the police officials in Srinagar asked him when his brother had joined militancy. “I asked them how he could have become a militant in a few hours,” he said. “I told them he was a simple human being who had left home last morning for work. He had even applied for vacancies in the police department. Would he do that if he was a militant?”

‘Erase his identity’

While Ajaz Mughal was still absorbing the shock of his brother’s killing in an encounter, he noticed several odd things about his brother’s corpse. “One side of his face had been completely blown up,” he told Scroll. “His brain matter had splattered out. They had fired bullets on his face so that he could not be identified. I recognised him from the right side of his forehead and face.”

He added: “I counted 19 bullet wounds on his body.”

The pictures of Rashid Mughal shared by open-source intelligence accounts on social media platform X confirm Ajaz Mughal’s description of the deceased.

His dress was tampered with as well. “Whosoever killed him also changed his clothes,” said Ajaz Mughal. “He had left home in a salwar kameez and a pair of slippers. When I checked his body, they had removed his kameez and put an upper and pheran on his body.”

A pheran is a long cloak worn by Kashmiris during winters.

Ajaz added: “It wasn’t his pheran. The two pherans he owned are at our home.”

While his trousers had not been removed, Ajaz Mughal said he found another smaller and ill-fitting pair of trousers over them. “It looked as if the trousers of a small child had been forcibly put over his shalwar,” he recalled. “They had tied the trousers around his waist with a string made of bandages.”

It wasn’t only the trousers that were ill-fitting. “He had left home in slippers, but his body was wearing fresh commando-type shoes without any socks. Again, they were very tight and it took us a while for us to remove them from his body,” Ajaz Mughal said.

Rashid Mughal’s cousin, Imran Mughal, pointed out that on the night of the alleged fake encounter, there was rainfall. “How is it possible that there was not a single speck of mud on his shoes if he was engaged in a gunbattle?” he asked.

‘Firing lasted for few minutes’

Over the last 37 years of armed insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir, gunfights between militants and security forces are known to last for hours or even days.

These gunfights, usually, entail a heavy exchange of fire between the two sides before the militants are killed.

But local residents in Arhama village of Ganderbal recall nothing unusual on the day of the encounter. The spot where the alleged encounter took place is a densely covered protected forest area, not more than 400 metres from the village’s main road. It’s common for the villagers to frequent the nearby forest area to collect firewood and grass for cattle.

Around sunset, local residents say, Army vehicles started arriving in the village. It’s not unusual for the Army to patrol villages in Kashmir Valley, but that day the presence of security personnel was unusually high.

“When we saw many Army vehicles arriving in the village, we sensed something was wrong,” said a local in Arhama, asking not to be identified. “We had just finished evening prayers around 7 when we heard gunshots. The entire village was terrified and people stayed indoors.”

Many villagers Scroll spoke to in Arhama underlined that the firing during the purported gunfight lasted for not more than 10 minutes. “Security forces were everywhere in the village and no one was allowed to go outside. For the entire night, there was no firing,” said another resident. “Around 7 in the morning, there were some more gunshots and that’s it.”

No mortal remains

In both the tragedies, spanning nearly three decades, the Mughal family was deprived of the mortal remains of their slain sons. When Ishfaq Mughal was killed, Ajaz Ahmad said, “we just found his clothes in the forest area.”

In Rashid Mughal’s case, his body was not handed over to the family for last rites.

Since the outbreak of Covid-19, security forces have ensured that militants are buried in far-off places and in the presence of only close relatives, to prevent mass gatherings at funerals.

Rashid Mughal was buried in a far-off area of North Kashmir’s Kupwara district in a graveyard meant for militants killed in gunfights with security forces – with only his brother Ajaz Mughal present.