Custodial death: Sopore youth's father shows faith in inquiry

The father of the youth, who allegedly died in police custody in north Kashmir, today claimed that his son was innocent and expressed complete faith in the inquiry ordered by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.

"The body of my son (Nazim Rashid) had torture marks all over. There was hardly any part which did not tell the story of brutality committed on him," Abdul Rashid Shalla, a retired police officer, told PTI over phone.

Shalla claimed that his 28-year-old son was innocent and the family had fully cooperated with the army and police in their probe into the killing of a civilian by militants in the town a few days earlier.

"An army major visited our shop on July 30 around 2.00pm and started questioning my son. My son pleaded innocence but the officer insisted on taking him, promising that he will be home by evening," the father of the deceased youth said.

The retired police officer said that he had full faith in the inquiry ordered by the Chief Minister.

Shalla said his son had admitted that he was passing by the area where militants shot dead Mohammad Ashraf on July 28 but he was not involved in the killing any way.

He said when his son did not return home till late in the evening, he contacted the Army officer who informed him that his son had been handed over to Special Operations Group (SOG).

"All efforts to contact Nazim went in vain and the next morning we came to know about his death in custody," Shalla said.