On December 30 evening, in a grave far away from his home in Pulwama, Mushtaq Ahmad buried his 17-year-old son. He had dug up another grave in his native village, but the government refused to hand over the body, as part of its policy regarding alleged militants. Athar was among the three youths killed in an alleged encounter in Srinagar in the intervening night of December 29 & 30, in an operation based on Army inputs and later joined by the police and CRPF. Army said they were responding to information regarding a planned attack. Forces said the three were overground militant workers, though they didn’t figure in any official list of terrorists, and that they were repeatedly given a chance to surrender, but kept firing.
