Father of 3-month-old, Class 8 student among Pulwama dead

The three-month-old baby of deceased Abid Hussain Lone, 25, was placed on the stretcher of her father as his family bid him a final farewell. The air was filled with loud wails from both men and women outside a two-storey cemented house at Kareemabad in Pulwama, on Saturday afternoon.

Seven civilians were left dead in clashes with security forces in Pulwama on Saturday.

“Lone was married to an Indonesian woman. They returned home last year from Indonesia. He had bullet wounds on his chest. Do you think this is indication that the Army opened fire to scare him away from the spot?” asked a relative of Lone, who was an MBA.

Lone’s father is a retired government teacher. His younger brother is also pursuing an MBA degree. “When he [Lone] left home in the morning, he said he is going to buy milk for the baby. But he returned in a white shroud,” said a neighbour.

Medical Superintendent, Pulwama District Hospital, Dr. Abdul Rashid Para said an unidentified body with bullet wounds had been lying in the hospital corridor. A curious onlooker visited the hospital to assess the situation. To his shock, the body that of his son, Aqib Bashir, a Class 8 student from Pulwama’s Prichoo area. “He is my son,” shouted the man as he fainted, eyewitnesses said. The student was known to be a social media buff and a selfie lover.

The hospital treated 32 civilians, hit either by bullets or pellets, said Dr. Para.