On the 7th death anniversary of teenager Tufail Matoo, who was killed by teargas shell fired by police, his family pledged to continue their fight for justice.
17-year old Tufail was killed on this day in 2010 when teargas shell hit him on head near Gani Memorial Stadium at Rajouri Kadal in downtown.
On Tufail’s 7th death anniversary, people from different walks of life participated in prayers at his grave in Martyrs graveyard at Eidgah.
“We observe this day with the hope that perpetrators of such crimes against humanity will be punished. We miss him (Tufail) a lot. Pain of his separation has strengthened our fight for justice,” Tufail’s father Muhammad Ashraf Matoo told Kashmir Post.
“Tufail’s killing sparked the 2010 public uprising and with it began the genocide of teenagers in the valley of martyrs,” he said. The year witnessed killing of 128 civilians, mostly teenagers and youth.
Tufail’s family is fighting for justice since 2010. “There was 36-day delay in filing the FIR. Then the formation of an enquiry commission, headed by retired Justice M.L Koul, took nearly four years to come up with a report,” Ashraf said.
On June 18, 2010, Tufail’s family had approached Chief Judicial Magistrate Srinagar seeking registration of the FIR, following which the police was directed to file the report. The FIR, filed on July 17, 2010 and initiated under 302 RPC, termed Tufail’s death as ‘mysterious’. However, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the state police constituted for investigation submitted its report on November 30, 2012 and declared his killers as untraced. In February 2014, Jammu Kashmir High Court handed the case to the Crime Branch ordering fresh probe into the matter following which it again submitted a closure report as “untraced” in May 2015.
The enquiry commission formed in 2014 during the Omar Abdullah’s tenure had handed over its report to the PDP-led government in 2016 and found out that police fired upon demonstrators without magisterial orders. It also recommended a CBI inquiry into the killing.
“They failed to establish the Commission in 2010 itself, which could have saved many innocent lives. Finally, when the Commission’s report was handed over to the present regime led by PDP, they merely pushed it beneath the carpet,” said Ashraf, noting how the authorities responsible for the crime have not deposed before the Commission. “Ironically, I was denied access to the report in spite of being the petitioner,” he said.
As he waits for the court hearing on 17th of this month, Ashraf says, “ Unless justice is delivered, there won’t be peace and tranquility in the valley. Will fight for justice till last breath,” he added.
Ashraf Matoo has turned grey over the years moving from pillar to post in seeking justice in the case of killing of his only child, Tufail, who would have turned 24 on Sunday.
