Youth hoist Pakistan flag on Mufti’s ancestral house

Bijbehara, November 24 : Youth participating in the funeral procession of three Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militants on Tuesday hoisted a Pakistan flag on Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed’s ancestral house in Bijbehara town of south Kashmir’s Anantnag district.
Hundreds of people joined the funeral procession of the militants, two of who belonged to Bijbehara town.
The militants were killed in the Siligam area of Anantnag district on Monday afternoon in a brief gunfight with security forces.
On Tuesday, as the bodies were being carried for funeral, a few youth part of the procession slipped away and hoisted a Pakistan flag on the old part of the complex that is the ancestral house of the Chief Minister in Baba Mohalla locality of the town. The highly secured complex has two houses, a new and an old one.
The flag was hoisted on an outer wall of the old house that is being used as a waiting hall for workers of the ruling Poeple’s Democratic Party.
The Mufti’s maternal uncle, Mufti Muhammad Amin, and his son Mufti Muhammad Sajad, coordinator of the PDP, currently live in the house along with their families.
Sajad told The Tribune he was not aware of such a flag being hoisted. “None of us have ventured out of the house, so we do not know about any flag,” he said.
Anantnag SSP Abdul Jabbar, however, said the flag had been hoisted on an adjacent house, and not the Chief Minister’s residence.
One of the militants killed in the encounter also lived in Baba Mohalla, less than a couple of hundred metres from the Chief Minister’s house.
There was no reaction from the security personnel guarding the complex, who confined themselves indoors.
Last evening, when the bodies of the militants were brought home, some people had allegedly pelted stones at the house. However, no injuries to anyone or damage to the complex was reported.
A complete shutdown is being observed in Bijbehara town and other parts of the Valley.
The funeral prayers were held in the lawns of a ‘marriage house’ recently inaugurated by the Chief Minister.
As the funeral procession moved towards the graveyard, also located close to the Chief Minister’s residence, there were no security forces to be seen in the area.