Srinagar: The Ganderbal encounter echoed inside the Jammu and Kashmir assembly on Saturday (April 4), with the ruling National Conference (NC) demanding the return of the youngster’s body, pushing back against the army’s claim that he was a militant.As the legislative assembly convened on Saturday for its last gathering at the culmination of the winter session, Mubarak Gul, a ruling party legislator, sought justice for the “innocent” youngster who was killed in the controversial encounter earlier this week.The body of Rashid Ahmad Mughal, a commerce post-graduate from Chountwaliwar village in Ganderbal’s Lar area, was handed to local police on April 1 by the army, which claimed that he was a militant and that he was gunned down during an encounter in the Arahama forests.Mughal’s family however rejected the army’s claim, saying that he has no links to militancy while alleging that he was “killed in cold blood”.Speaking on the issue, another senior NC leader Hasnain Masoodi said in the assembly that Mughal’s family has the constitutional right to give a decent burial to the slain youngster as per their wishes and customs.“It is a constitutionally accepted right. But till today the body has not been returned to the family. Their religious rights are being violated. The right to decent burial should be respected,” said Masoodi, a former judge of the J&K high court and legislator for the Pampore constituency in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.He added: “Killings happen in one corner [of Kashmir] but graveyards are in another corner. If the LG has ordered a probe, this tradition should also be discontinued.”Lieutenant governor (LG) Manoj Sinha on Friday ordered a magisterial probe into the killing of the youngster in the intervening night of March 31 and April 1. The probe committee has been directed to submit its report within seven days.Seeking a judicial probe into the killing, the Congress legislator for Bandipora, Nizamuddin Bhat, said in the assembly that the magisterial inquiry was “insufficient” as the contours of the probe have not been spelled out in the order issued by J&K’s home department.“If the right to a decent burial is being denied at the outset, what kind of judicious inquiry will be undertaken? In such circumstances, administrative inquiries are impacted by lacunas. There should be speedy justice. It is a grave issue and reflects how lives are being treated so ordinarily,” Bhat said.BJP legislator R.S. Pathania however opposed discussion on the matter, saying that it was a law and order issue which is beyond the purview of the assembly under the J&K Reorganisation Act.Ghulam Rasool, Mughal’s uncle, said that the family has conveyed three demands to senior administration officials, including Ganderbal’s deputy commissioner Jatin Kishore and senior superintendent of police Khalid Poswal while demanding justice.“We want to know why he was killed. He was innocent. The killers should be exposed and held accountable, and his body should be returned to us so that we can bury him in our own graveyard,” Rasool said.In 2020, a year after the reading down of Article 370, security forces started denying the mortal remains of suspected militants killed in encounters to their families, citing COVID-19-related concerns. Instead, they were buried far away from their homes in order to prevent the spread of the virus.Earlier, a 2018 J&K police study and security agencies argued that militants were using the mass funerals of their comrades after Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani’s killing in 2016 to recruit more youngsters into their ranks.After the pandemic was over, security agencies adopted the COVID-19-era measure as an official policy to control local militancy, which has purportedly led to a drastic fall in the recruitment of local militants in Kashmir, per security agencies.However, the new burial policy has left the families of these suspected militants in a state of perpetual anguish as the regular cost of travelling to these graveyards to offer prayers for the dead as per Islamic traditions adds to their psychological and economic burden.Opposing the policy in the assembly on Saturday, Masoodi said: “There should be a new beginning where the rights of people and the right to a decent burial are respected.”Hundreds of suspected local militants and foreigners have been buried in these graveyards, which are located in parts of north and central Kashmir and where access is restricted to close family members of the slain.Mughal’s body was transported to north Kashmir and buried in one such graveyard in Zachaldara. The funeral of the slain was attended by his brother Aijaz Ahmad and some close relatives.