When slain Lashkar commander Abu Dujana crossed from the Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir into the Valley in his teenage years, he probably did not know that he might never return. Dujana, who was killed in a joint operation by the security forces on Tuesday morning, has been buried quietly in Shiree in Baramulla, Home ministry officials confirmed.
According to estimates available with Indian intelligence agencies, more than two dozen Pakistani nationals are lying buried in Kashmir. The foreign militants lie in 'peace' in the burial grounds in Kulgam, Uri and Boniyar near the Line of Control, miles away from their Pakistani handlers. Many a wintry evenings have passed with none from across the border thinking of them.
"Once they (Pakistani terrorists) are on a terror mission, there is no way they will return. While alive, they are not allowed to ex-filtrate, and in death, Pakistan does not claim their bodies," said a senior intelligence official.
"The situation is such that we give them a quiet burial leaving the hope alive for their families to claim them by intimating Pakistan," said another security officer in the Valley. If his family appears after a few months, his body can be exhumed and handed over to them, said security officials.
Sources said that even though the Jammu and Kashmir police have approached the Centre asking it to intimate Pakistan for Dujana's family to claim his body, the chances are bleak. His body could not be handed over to his wife in Pulwama for two reasons. Firstly he is a Pakistani national and secondly the security agencies and the state government foresee a law and order problem.
"If we do so, the locals will take over the body," an official said. Dujana's wife is living with her father and both had been asked to leave the house when the crackdown happened.
Back in Pakistan, the voices of families of other slain terrorists buried in the Valley have never reached either the Indian government or the media .
A classic example is of Dujana's predecessor in Lashkar—Abu Qasim, the head of the Lashkar in Kashmir until December 2015. Qasim was the main recruiter and mastermind of the 2015 Udhampur attack.
Intelligence sources reveal he was buried in Kulgam. "No one claimed his body," the officials said. Thereafter, the trend was to bury the Pakistani terrorists in Boniyar and Uri for all practical purposes by the state government, the sources said.
