The body of the Kashmiri physiotherapist Irfan Ali was laid to rest on Thursday after the coffin reached here ten days after he was found dead with gunshot wounds in his head in the Libyan town of Derna.
A pall of gloom descended on the Shia neighbourhood of Shalamar, which was otherwise bustling with festivity on the eve of Nauroz, when hundreds of people participated in Ali’s funeral amid recitation of Marthiya, the typical mourning elegies. Thirty-three-year old Ali's wedding was recently fixed in the month of July this year.
Members of the bereaved family complained that the Indian media and the politicians ignored the young Kashmiri doctor’s killing by the Libyan guerrillas with “complete blackout.” One of them, who holds a senior position in the Jammu & Kashmir government, pointed out that the media, with the exception of a Srinagar-based newspaper, had completely ignored the incident.
“Even when an Indian national is roughed up in Australia or a student in USA gets a veiled threat, there are nights of debate and reporting on the Indian TV channels. Politicians get into a competition to issue statements. We haven't heard anybody in this country showing concern over an Indian Kashmiri's killing in a foreign country,” he told The Hindu .
Ali's maternal uncle Mohammad Saleem said the family was grateful to the Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian ambassador in Tripoli for their support in sending the body home through a diplomatic channel. He said Ambassador Anil Tringunayat described Ali as a representative of over 1,600 Indian doctors and paramedical staff working for the strife-torn Libyan people during and after the bloody change of regime of 2011.
Ali was among around a hundred Kashmiri doctors working in different hospitals in Libya. According to his relatives, as also reports from Tripoli, he was kidnapped on March 9 while coming out of a clinic in Bab al-siha area of Derna in east of Ben Ghazi province. NATO-based National Transitional Council or Derna Local Council have not shared details with Ali's family about how and why he was kidnapped and shot dead.
