Pakistan holds funeral of Kashmir 'militant'
An alleged Pakistani militant, killed en route to court in Indian-controlled Kashmir, was buried yesterday after his body was returned home by India, officials said.
A charged crowd of around 5,000 people including leaders of militant organisation attended the funeral in Rawalakot in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and chanted slogans against India.
Officials described the return of Waheed Noor Khan's body as the first time such an exchange had happened.
"It has happened for the first time that India has handed over dead body of a militant to Pakistan," Hamid Mughul, a senior administration official in Pakistani-administrated Kashmir, told AFP.
The disputed Kashmir region has been divided between India and Pakistan since the two countries gained independence in 1947. Both claim it in its entirety.
The deceased Khan was arrested by Indian forces around six years ago while he was crossing the border.
Khan was acquitted of three charges in Indian-administrated Kashmir but was killed in a bomb blast on June 20 in the town of Saupur while being taken to court for the fourth and final case against him.
"He was our fighter, he gave his life for liberation of Kashmir, his martyrdom gives a new zeal to all the liberation fighters of Kashmir, we will fight till India runs away," Syed Salahudeen, chief of the United Jihad Council, an alliance of various militant groups fighting against Indian troops said in his address.
He said Khan had crossed the border to wedge jihad against India.
Anti-India sentiment runs deep across Kashmir, a picturesque Himalayan region that is the country's only Muslim-majority state.
Although several rebel groups have been fighting Indian forces since 1989 for independence or merger with Pakistan, street protests have become the main mode of opposition to Indian rule.
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