The family of a teenager killed in a gunfight with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir’s Shopian district on Thursday denied that he was a militant.

The police alleged that Anayat Ashraf Dar had shot at a civilian in Shopian’s Chitragam area on Wednesday.

“During the course of investigation in yesterday’s firing attack on civilian at Chitragam, it surfaced that Anayat Ashraf Dar who has recently been active after joining terrorist ranks is involved in the said terror incident,” the police alleged.

The police added that after questioning some suspects and receiving inputs, they, along with the Central Reserve Police and the Army, launched a search operation for the alleged attacker in Shopian’s Keshwa area.

The police alleged that Dar fired at the security forces. “He was offered to surrender for whole night [Wednesday], but didn’t surrender and instead fired indiscriminately upon the joint search party which retaliated, leading to the elimination of the said terrorist,” the police claimed.

The security forces claimed to have recovered a pistol and ammunition from Dar. “He was also involved in threatening and intimidating the locals in and around his village with his illegally acquired weapon,” the police alleged.

The police have also accused Dar of being involved in drug dealings.

Dar’s uncle Bilal Ahmad told Scroll.in that he was a Class 11 student and had nothing to do with militancy. “Before Covid-19 pandemic, he was putting up at Srinagar for his tuition but since the pandemic, he was home,” he said.

Ahmad added: “He was busy the whole day [Wednesday], plucking apples in our orchard. In the evening, he went to his maternal home which is in the same village.”

Dar’s uncle said that when the police raided his maternal home, then he took shelter in a storeroom because he was scared of the security forces.

Ahmad alleged Dar had been detained by the police in February. “He had been tortured in custody and that’s why he was afraid of the forces,” Ahmad claimed.

Ahmad said that he asked the security forces to allow him to enter the storeroom and get Dar out. However, they refused to give him permission.

“Even we spoke to him from a distance and asked him to come out but he said they will torture him and it’s better to die than get tortured,” Dar’s uncle told Scroll.in. Ahmad also denied that Dar had a pistol.