Srinagar: A senior Jammu and Kashmir government official has accused the state police of preventing him from transporting his father’s body home citing the Amarnath Yatra.
According to Imtiyaz Wani, Director (Finance), Public Health Engineering and Irrigation Flood Control, his father’s body was being brought back from the Rajiv Gandhi hospital in New Delhi when police allegedly stopped the ambulance in Nagrota region of Jammu at 3 am Thursday.
Wani accused the state police of stopping the ambulance for nearly an hour and a half citing the movement of vehicles headed for the Amarnath Yatra. “It was a heartbreaking moment for me. My father had just passed away hours before this,” Wani said. “The official on duty told us that our vehicle can’t move as Yatri vehicles were on road. I told him I was carrying the body of my deceased father and he did not pay any heed to our pleas.”
In a Facebook post, Wani named one Inspector Rakesh of J&K Police. “Amarnath Yatra. All the civil rights are subordinate to Amarnath Yatra while moving from Jammu to Srinagar. I am not being allowed to carry forward the dead body of my father,” he has written. “What a hell life of a common Kashmiri in J&K is. Inspector Rakesh of J&K police on Yatra duty categorically says that dead body shall not be allowed (sic)”.
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When ThePrint contacted Sanjeev Verma, Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, he said he was not aware of the incident and would get back after he gets a confirmation. This report will be updated when he does.
Joginder Singh, Senior Superintendent of Police (Traffic), Jammu City, however, said Wani’s Facebook post did not contain enough information to verify the facts of the incident.
“We don’t know under what circumstances the vehicle was stopped but I can assure you that there is a special provision to let ambulance services or vehicles carrying dead bodies pass even when the yatris are moving,” Singh said. “If the individual who has written this post wants to come forward with his complaint then we can probe the incident. He should tell us at which naka the incident occurred or the name of the police officer involved. As per my information, there is no inspector named Rakesh at the area mentioned in the FB post.”
‘Gave police the slip’
Wani said he finally gave police the slip when they went to check on one of their vehicles that had broken down near the police post where he was being detained. “Eventually a police bus broke down and the officials went towards the vehicle to fix it. I found an opportunity to move ahead and I directed our driver to move,” Wani added.
Wani further said had he been told by officials at the police post in Jammu city that his vehicle would not be allowed to move, he would have made other arrangements to transport his father’s body.
The senior official also stated that he was not against the yatra.
“We are not against Yatra at all. The pilgrims have all the right to practice their faith but does this mean my rights should be trampled upon like this,” Wani said. “Even today many of my relatives wanted to attend the funeral at 11 am but couldn’t do so as their vehicles were stopped at many places.”
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Mr wani there is no hard feelings but being in high post u too HV to abide by the rule ….. U cannot blame the police officials , they are doing their duty …… Rather u shld HV praised their concern towards security
Yor father is no more , is sad . Being a top official u shld HV understood the priority of the situation than making complaints , we don’t need selfish officials