Cops refused to let me take father’s body to Srinagar due to Amarnath traffic: Says top official

Srinagar: A senior official of the Jammu and Kashmir government has alleged that he was stopped while he was carrying his father’s body back to Srinagar and made to wait for several hours because of the restrictions due to the ongoing Amarnath Yatra.
Imtiyaz Wani, Director Finance in J&K government narrated his ordeal in a Face book post to say that if this is what is done to a government official, what is happening with the commoners. “All civil rights are subordinate to Amarnath Yatra while moving from Jammu to Kashmir. I am not being allowed to carry forward my father’s dead body. What hell the life of a common Kashmiri is. Inspector Rakesh of J&K Police on yatra duty categorically said the body shall not be allowed,” Imtiyaz wrote on his Facebook account.
Wani’s father had been ailing from cancer and was shifted to Delhi for treatment. He, however, passed away in the hospital when the family was moving back from Delhi to Jammu. They were travelling towards Srinagar in the early hours of Thursday morning when they were halted on their way.
“When we crossed Nagrota after leaving Jammu with my father’s body, I was stopped. I kept pleading with them that I am a senior public servant but they did not pay any heed. It was only after two hours that they let me take my father’s body. The officer kept saying that he has to allow the Yatris and not dead bodies. It is very sad. We are not against the Yatra but does it suspend our civil rights of taking a deceased person home,” said Imtiyaz.
Traffic police in Jammu, however, said that there are no such orders to stop a body from being transported. “There are no such orders,” said Joginder Singh, SSP Traffic Jammu.
There have been several instances when the civilians in the Valley have complained of problems due to restrictions on the movement of vehicles. A few cases of ambulances being stopped have also surfaced.
Complaints have been pouring in on a daily basis that authorities in Jammu and Kashmir have barred civilian traffic on Qazigund-Nashri stretch of the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway for few hours every day in order to allow incident-free passage to vehicles carrying Amarnath pilgrims.
However, division commissioner of Kashmir in a recent press briefing said that there was no blanket ban.
“There is no ban on civilian movement during the Amarnath Yatra, only traffic regulation,” Baseer Khan, Divisional Commissioner Kashmir said during a press conference in Srinagar last week.
Plea for enhancement of punishment in Kathua minor rape case: Chandigarah top court issues notice to JK Govt