Seeing many locals marching towards the encounter site he too walked to the neighboring village.
Srinagar, June 19: As Ehsaan Mushtaq, a class 8th student of Hira Public school – Batengoo, led predawn prayers in a local Darsgah on Friday, little did he know that these were his last prayers.
When the 13 year old, returned from his school early to offer Friday prayers in local mosque in Shamsipora, a gunfight was raging in nearby Arwani village between forces and militants.
Seeing many locals marching towards the encounter site he too walked to the neighboring village.
Ehsan, according to eyewitnesses, was the first to have been caught by forces. “They beat him to pulp and hit him with gun butts and then targeted him by pellets from a very close range,” the locals said.
His family and neighbours seconded the account. “There were clear assault marks on his body and head, apart from the pellet injury between his chest and shoulder,” said a relative of Ehsan .
He was rushed to SDH Qaimoh in Kulgam district, where he was declared as bought dead, the locals said.
The neighbours describe him as a humble and pious. “He used to spend most of his time in Darsgah, where he not only studied but also taught others,” said Bilal Ahmad.
His father, Mushtaq Ahmad Wani, aged 38 a Nursing orderly in Health Department is in utter shock and is hardly able to talk after he heard the news of his lone son to have been killed by forces.
“Let him at least weep for some time, so that he feels bit relaxed,” a man asked the people around him as he sat in a room of his modest house.
Ehsan was the only son of Wani and Meema. The couple has two daughters Gazala – a 10th standard student and Nazish- a 4th standard student.
