The Special Task Force (STF) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police picked up Mohammad Afzal in the summer of 2000 and tortured him during interrogation because they had got a tip-off one of their informers, Parvez, that Afzal could lead them to Jaish-e-Mohammad's chief in Jammu and Kashmir.
But Afzal says he was tortured by STF for extortion. Both these versions were not examined by the trial court. And then, there is a third version to it. And like the other versions, this also never surfaced during Afzal's trial. Interestingly, Afzal has also not mentioned it in any of his letters.
It was Aijaz, Afzal’s elder brother, who arranged for his release from the STF camp through a senior police officer, the then SSP of Budgam, Ashaq Hussain Bukhari. Aijaz is a friend of the police officer's brother-in-law, Altaf Hussain. DSP Davinder Singh, who admits to torturing Afzal, confirmed this.
"Haan, Altaf ne hi chhudvaya, he was the mediator otherwise Aijaz seedha Bukhari saab ke paas nahin ja sakta tha," Davinder testifies. (Yes, Altaf got Afzal released. Else, he could not have gone to Bukhari.)
"Jab torture ispe zyada hua, toh my SP spoke to me. He asked me ki jo banda pakda hai uska kya hua? Maine kaha ki sir torture toh bahut kiya hai. nahi chala…unhone kaha ki aapko kya lagta hai? Maine kaha mera source toh kehta hai ki yeh uska banda hai - usko dayein-bayein chalata hai…---isko hai Gazi baba ke baare mein. Kehta hai dekhna banda mar na jaye…he should not die," Davinder recalls. (My SP asked me what had happened to Afzal. I told him we tortured him a lot but got no information. I told my SP that I was sure that I was sure that Afzal was a close aide of Gazi Baba. The SP told me to make sure that Afzal didn’t die.)
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