Srinagar
Five months after his wife was killed in near encounter site, Ishfaq Ahmad Wani, a resident of Chowgal Handwara, has been arrested by police on charges of stone pelting, leaving her one-year-old daughter completely without parental care.
Sources said police on Monday arrested Wani from Unisoo area of Handwara in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district.
Wani’s wife Misra Bano killed during an encounter on December 11, 2017, that also left three militants dead at Unisoo village.
Wani was summoned by police post-Chowgal where he was later put behind the bars.
A police officer when contacted told GNS that Wani was held after proper evidence about his involvement in stone pelting in the area.
“We have procured a video footage wherein Ishfaq is seen leading the stone-throwing youth,” he said.
The residents of the area have expressed serious concern about the detention of Ishfaq saying his infant child and old aged parents are now left with nobody who will take care of them.
“The minor girl lost her mother; now she is staying with the absence of her father. Her grandparents are very old. This is heart-wrenching,” one of the senior citizens of the village said.
The residents have demanded the immediate release of Ishfaq on humanitarian grounds.
“Let his (Ishfaq’s) parents come and he would be released after proper counselling,” the police officer told GNS.
