Jehangir Lolabi
Father of Manan Wani, the PhD scholar turned-Hizbul Mujahideen commander who was killed last week in an encounter with government forces at Shatgund Balla in Handwara, on Monday urged authorities to “at least release the 25 persons including doctors, students and other persons who were detained for offering or on way to offer funeral prayers and expressing solidarity with us”.
Talking to Global News Service (GNS), Manan’s father Bashir Ahmad Wani said authorities should immediately release the detained “guests” on humanitarian grounds saying “they had just offered or come to offer funeral prayers and express condolence with us in this hour of grief”.
“They only joined the funeral prayers of my son, which is no crime. I along with local fraternity request the police especially DGP and IGP to release our guests on humanitarian grounds,” Bashir said.
Among the detained “guests”, he said that five are doctors and some are engineering students. “They belong to south Kashmir, Budgam and other districts including Kupwara,” he said.
