KASHMIR ALL TRAGEDIES

'BEATING by Indian troops radicalised attacker : parents'.

A suicide bomber who killed over 44 paramilitary policemen in Indian-held Kashmir joined a militant group after having been beaten by troops three-years ago, his parents said on Friday.

Jaish-e.Mohammed has reportedly claimed responsibility for Thursday's car bomb attack on security convoy, the worst in decades of the occupied territory.

Student Adil Dar, 20, from the village of Lethipora in occupied valley, rammed a car full of explosives into the convoy.

''We are in pain the same way the families of the soldiers are,'' said farmer Ghulam Hassan Dar, adding that his son had been radicalised after police stopped him and his friends on the way home from school in 2016.

''They were stooped by the troops and beaten up and harassed,'' Dar said, adding that the students were accused of  stone-pelting.

''Since then he wanted to join the militants.''

His mother, Fahmeeda, corroborated her husband's account.

''He was beaten by Indian troops a few years ago when he was returning from school,'' she said. ''This led to anger in him against the Indian troops.''

Both the parent's said they were unaware of their son's plan to attack the convoy. Dar did not return home from his work as a labourer on March 19 last year, Fahmeeda added.

''We searched for him for three months,'' she said. ''Finally we gave up the efforts to bring him back home.''

Dar said he blamed politician's for his son's death.

''They should have resolved the issue through dialogue,'' he said, referring to the Kashmir conflict.  ''It is they who are responsible for driving these youth into militancy. The sons of the common man die here, whether they are  Indian troops or our sons.''  [Agencies]