Kashmir unrest and fear of public spectre forced hurried burial of Uri attackers

What led to the hurried burial of the four terrorists who struck at an army camp at Uri last Sunday. The normal protocol is to preserve the bodies for at least a month before it is buried. In the case of the Uri attack, the bodies of the terrorists were buried the very next day.

Officials give two reasons behind the hurried burial. The bodies were badly charred and hence could not be preserved for long. Secondly, Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed an ugly trend in the past few months where people turn up at terrorists' funerals and try making martyrs out of them. We wanted to avoid this scenario as felt that some people may land up and ask for a public burial, an officer noted.

Did not want a public display

The bodies of the terrorists who struck Mumbai on 26/11 were kept for nearly a year. In the Pathankot attack case, the bodies were kept for a month. However, both these scenarios cannot be compared to the one at Uri. In Kashmir there have been public funerals for the local militants.

However, in the case of Abu Qasim, a Lashkar-e-Taiba foreign militant there was a huge gathering at his funeral. Officials say that they did not want a repeat of this at Uri. Moreover the NIA arrived at Uri on Monday a day after the attack.

Photographs of the militants apart from DNA samples were collected. It was only after this that the bodies were buried at an undisclosed location near the camp, officials also point out.

In the past India has confronted Pakistan and asked them to collect the bodies. However, this time around there was no such exercise.

"Do you think Pakistan would come forward and collect or claim the bodies. It is a futile exercise. Moreover the unrest in Kashmir was also on the back of our minds. The more time we kept the bodies the chances of a public gathering was higher," the officer also says.

OneIndia News