For a moment, Chand was dumb struck. Padroo spoke only Kashmiri and when Chand informed the schoolteacher that he was waiting for a magistrate’s order to exhume the body of Padroo’s son Abdul Rehman from a grave in Ganderbal — the order came later, the body will be exhumed today — he listened silently and walked away. Padroo stayed and prayed for the officer’s good health, saying you are a good man and God will reward you. This time the officer didn’t understand what Padroo said but he patted his shoulder, consoling him. “Don’t worry, don’t worry,’’ Chand had nothing else to say. The government had not bothered to officially inform the carpenter’s family about the outcome of their investigation. In fact, there is no such official ritual in Kashmir and the family is perhaps the last to know.

Outside, the schoolteacher had already told other neighbours and relatives, who were accompanying Padroo. Now they slowly started breaking the tragic news to a father, who had started the day with a hope. “The police will open a grave in Ganderbal to see who is buried there,’’ a village elder, Ghulam Nabi Khan told Padroo. Padroo listened but he again hoped against hope.

“For us, he is still alive,’’ he said and the villagers decided to rush to the divisional commissioner’s office to speed up the exhumation process. “This wait is killing. We want to see his body and take him home for a decent burial,’’ Khan said. The J-K Police had arrested two of its men in the case and one of them, Constable Farooq Ahmad, belonged to his village which opened a new dimension to the “fake encounter’’ and the killing.

... contd.