Family of trucker proceeds with burial after administration offers job, access to welfare schemes

Three rounds of talks were held between the Meo community and the Alwar administration till evening before a compromise was arrived at.

The body of truck driver Mohammed Ilyas, who was killed by militants in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, was buried on Saturday evening here after his family members accepted the offer of the administration.

Ilyas, 45, and his helper Zahid Meo were slain by terrorist in Kashmir’s Shopian district as they were returning with a truckload of apples after having offloaded the milk supply for the Army personnel in Shopian. (AP)

Ilyas’s family had refused to accept the body initially after it was brought to his native village Khobas on Saturday.

Ilyas is survived by wife and four children while family members and Meo community members sat on a dharna at Mehrampur near Khobas and demanding Rs 21 lakh and a government job in compensation.

Three rounds of talks were held between the Meo community and the Alwar administration till evening before a compromise was arrived at, said acting collector Ramcharan Sharma.

He said the family had agreed to compensation of Rs 6.5 lakh and benefit of various government welfare schemes.

He said the Rajasthan government has given Rs 2 lakh while the Jammu and Kashmir government will give Rs 4.5 lakh to the family.

Ex-sarpanch of Kithoor Panchayat, Khursheed Ahmed said their demands included awarding Ilyas the status of a martyr, Rs 21 lakh compensation to the victim’s family, free education to his kids, government job to a member of the family and all the facilities to be provided to victim’s wife that are provided to a martyr’s wife among others.

They had also threatened an agitation from October 30 if the local administration did not fulfill their demands. Ahmed said apart from the government compensation, the Meo community members would give the family Rs 3.5 lakh and the local Congress MLA Deep Chand Kheria would give Rs 1 lakh and Ahmed would give Rs 50,000. Ilyas’s wife would be given a job as an anganwadi worker, he said.

Ilyas, 45, and his helper Zahid Meo were slain by terrorist in Kashmir’s Shopian district as they were returning with a truckload of apples after having offloaded the milk supply for the Army personnel in Shopian.

Zahid, a resident of Bharatpur district, left his wife and three children behind.

Meanwhile, the Jaipur Transport Operators Association has issued an advisory to truck companies asking them not to take bookings for transporting goods to and from Kashmir and not to send their vehicles and drivers to Kashmir.

Gopal Singh Rathore, Rajasthan president of the Jaipur Transport Operators’ Association said, “I have issued the advisory as our drivers are not safe in Kashmir. They are being killed by terrorists. We will not send any truck to carry goods to or from Kashmir till the central government can ensure their security.”

In the video, Rathore said that, “All the truck and transport owners in Rajathan have decided that they will not send any driver to Jammu and Kashmir where our innocent drivers have been mercilessly killed. Till the centre can ensure their full security, no truck or transport owner will send their trucks to Jammu and Kashmir. Our demand from prime minister Narendra Modi is that families of the deceased truck drivers be given full compensation, their children be given jobs and the deceased drivers be given the status of martyrs. If our demands are not met we can decide to launch an agitation.”

This is the fourth such attack on non-Jammu and Kashmir residents and the second on truckers from Rajasthan, in the last couple of weeks. On October 14, truck driver Sharief Khan from Bharatpur district was gunned down by terrorists in J&K.