| News Details |
| 23 Years after Changa Killing,Justice at Last: Court Convicts Irfan Ali in Sarpanch Murder | | Local School Master others laisse with militants to do this Murder. Questions Linger Over Local Links |
Bhaderwah,October 13 (Scoop News)-The dusty lanes of Changa in Gandoh subdivision remember the night when democracy was silenced by gunfire. It was July 4, 2002, when Sher Mohammad Rather, the Sarpanch of the village and a grassroots voice of the newly empowered Panchayat Raj system, was dragged from his home by gunmen and shot dead before his family. Twenty-three years later, a court in Bhaderwah has finally brought one of his killers to justice — but the story of those who helped them remains a scar in the collective memory of Bhalessa.
Delivering judgment in State vs. Irfan Ali (Case No. 08/Murder, FIR 57/2002, P/S Gandoh), Principal Sessions Judge Bhaderwah, Balbir L. Jaswal, on October 8, 2025, found Irfan Ali alias Babloo, a resident of Kilhotran, guilty of murdering Sarpanch Sher Mohammad Rather under Sections 302/34 RPC and 7/27 Arms Act.
The court observed that the prosecution’s evidence — particularly from the slain Sarpanch’s sons Ashiq Hussain, Mohammad Ramzan, and Muzaffer Hussain — was “direct, consistent and credible” and established beyond doubt that Irfan Ali had entered the victim’s home with weapons and opened fire, killing him on the spot.
Another accused, Tariq Ahmad Mattoo alias Gorkha, had been convicted earlier in 2014 but was acquitted by the J&K and Ladakh High Court in 2022, which found insufficient evidence to link him to the actual shooting.
However, Judge Jaswal ruled that Irfan Ali could not claim parity:
“Distinct evidence is apparent against Irfan Ali. He cannot claim benefit of doubt merely because another accused was acquitted.
Court records and eyewitness testimonies reconstruct a chilling account. Around 9:00 PM, Irfan Ali (code name Babloo) and Jan Mohammad (code name Hamza) entered the home of Sarpanch Sher Mohammad in Changa, Gandoh. Both were armed with rifles. They told the Sarpanch that “Sahab is calling” and ordered him outside.
Outside, waiting in the shadows, were Tariq Mattoo, along with three local residents named in witness depositions: Jamat Ali s/o Ghulam Rasool, Mohammad Alyas s/o Ahmadoo, and Ghulam Rasool s/o Ahmadoo. Witnesses testified that the trio dragged the Sarpanch into a nearby pathway and urged the militants to “shoot him.”
Then came the burst of automatic gunfire. The Sarpanch was riddled with bullets, his chest and abdomen torn apart. “They said they had made him Sarpanch forever,” testified his son Ashiq Hussain in court.
Army personnel stationed a kilometer away at the Gowari bus stand saw flashes of gunfire and threw up searchlights. But by the time they reached, the gunmen had vanished into the forested ridges of Bhalessa.
Among those named in the trial record as accomplices or sympathizers was Jamat Ali, son of Ghulam Rasool, a government teacher posted at Government Higher Secondary School, Kilhotran.
In multiple depositions (PWs 2, 3, and 4), witnesses consistently identified Jamat Ali as one of the men present during the killing, alleging that he dragged the Sarpanch and instigated the militants to fire.
Locals later whispered that Jamat Ali was a militant sympathizer, an allegation never formally proven in court but mentioned repeatedly during the proceedings. Despite being named by eyewitnesses, he was never arrested or charge-sheeted — a gap that villagers of Changa still struggle to understand.
“He was a government master, an educated man,” recalls a local elder, “but everyone knew he had links with the boys in the forests.”
Another name that figures prominently in the judgment is Mohammad Alyas, one of the three alleged civilians seen accompanying the gunmen that night. Witnesses stated that Alyas was among those who stood outside the house and encouraged the militants to kill.
What stunned many later was that Mohammad Alyas became the new Sarpanch of Changa soon after Sher Mohammad’s assassination, a move that locals interpreted as both opportunistic and symbolic.
Though there was never any formal inquiry into Alyas’s alleged role, residents of the area have long believed that the killing cleared the way for his elevation. “The man who watched the murder became the Sarpanch — that’s how fear ruled those days,” said a retired Panchayat member who requested anonymity.
The journey of this case was as tragic as the crime itself. In December 2020, a fire in the Bhaderwah court complex destroyed the entire case file. Acting swiftly, the High Court of J&K and Ladakh, through order No. 28100/RG/GS dated 18.02.2021, directed reconstruction of records using witness copies and prosecution documents.
Fresh charges were then framed in June 2021, and the long-delayed trial resumed. Over the next four years, eight prosecution witnesses were re-examined, including the sons of the deceased and the doctor who conducted the postmortem.
Dr. Nizam-Ud-Din Dar, then Medical Officer at SDH Gandoh, testified that the Sarpanch had suffered multiple bullet wounds, with entry injuries on the chest and right abdomen and exit wounds across the shoulder and elbow.
He confirmed death was due to hemorrhagic shock and cardio-respiratory failure within minutes. The pattern of wounds, he noted, suggested a burst of automatic fire at close range.
Sher Mohammad Rather’s murder came during one of the darkest phases of militancy in the Chenab region. Panchayat members were seen as state representatives — easy targets for militants and their local collaborators.
After his death, the family lived in fear, with sons forced to testify multiple times over two decades as witnesses were re-examined in 2007, 2009, 2010, and again in 2022–2023 after the case reconstruction.
Even after the judgment, locals say the story is incomplete. None of the three alleged civilian collaborators — Jamat Ali, Ghulam Rasool, and Mohammad Alyas — ever faced trial.
In his 160-page judgment, Judge Balbir L. Jaswal concluded that the prosecution succeeded in proving Irfan Ali’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt, observing that:
“The evidence of eye witnesses is natural, trustworthy, and consistent with the medical and documentary evidence. The accused Irfan Ali @ Babloo acted with intention and fired upon the deceased, resulting in his death.”
The court convicted Irfan Ali under Sections 302/34 RPC and 7/27 Arms Act and reserved sentencing for a subsequent hearing.
While the conviction offers closure to the Rather family, it also revives troubling questions about how militant networks operated with civilian facilitators, and how some of those named in connection with the crime went on to hold positions of respect in society.
“My father died because he stood for democracy,” said Ashiq Hussain, one of the eyewitness sons. “We saw who did it. Some of them are still teaching our children.”
The conviction of Irfan Ali closes a painful chapter for Changa but leaves open others — the complicity of locals, the apathy of authorities, and the lingering fear that justice, when delayed too long, becomes a shadow of itself.
As the court’s verdict echoes through Bhalessa, it is both a tribute to a slain Sarpanch and a reminder that truth can outlive fire, fear, and forgotten files.
... |
| |
|
|
Share this Story |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|