Anger has gripped Kashmir after a Srinagar family claimed their son was killed in Delhi, with some politicians alleging the Delhi police tortured him and doctors refused to treat him.

Some linked it to the post-Pahalgam backlash against Kashmiris.

Zubair Ahmad Bhat, 30, who worked with a handicrafts company in Delhi, died under mysterious circumstances in the capital on Monday. His body was flown back on Wednesday.

Many of the mourners in his funeral procession chanted slogans seeking an end to the “killings of Kashmiris”.

Delhi police said there were “no signs of physical abuse” on Bhat’s body, nor any “indication of foul play” in his death. Officers hinted at possible drug abuse.

A relative said Bhat had sent a WhatsApp message to his family saying he had been beaten with rods for being a Kashmiri. She didn’t say who had beaten him.

“He said he was beaten with rods but urged us not to tell his mother as she would die (on hearing about it),” the woman relative told reporters.

Iltija Mufti, Peoples Democratic Party leader and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti’s daughter, visited the family on Thursday. She read out Bhat’s last message to his family that purportedly said the Delhi police had tortured him.

“Zubair Ahmed Bhat didn’t die under mysterious circumstances. Let me bite the bullet & state the unpleasant truth. His family claims he was picked up by Delhi police, questioned & thrashed with rods,” Iltija said in a post on X.

“This 30 year old man was the sole breadwinner for his mother & siblings. When will this pattern of snuffing out the lives of innocent Kashmiris purely on suspicion end? We demand answers & accountability.”

During the visit to the family, Iltija told reporters: “Zubair’s sister and brother are standing with me here. They showed me his last message which says police snatched his Aadhaar card after finding he was a Kashmiri. After that he was beaten with rods.”

She added: “There is proper proof…. The family says he left for Delhi and the police station there, I think Lajpat Nagar or Saddar police station, picked up Zubair. He was beaten and his Aadhaar card was snatched. The next day, when he went there to get his Aadhaar card back, he was beaten again.”

Iltija said Bhat was admitted to a hospital where the doctors refused to treat him because he was a Kashmiri.

“His brother was with him. Whenever he wanted to talk, he was administered an injection (to make him unconscious). The doctors would say they would not treat him because he was a Kashmiri,” she said.

She did not name the hospital.

“Should being a Kashmiri be a reason to hang us, give us such death, torture him so much that he will die?” Iltija said.

In Delhi, deputy commissioner of police (South East) Hemant Tiwari told TheTelegraph: “There are no signs of physical abuse and no injury marks on his body. There is no indication offoul play.”

A Delhi police source said: “We received a call (on Monday) from a doctor from Lajpat Nagar, who works in Safdarjung Hospital, saying that a man was wandering around in an unusual way, and was banging his head against walls.

“She said he appeared mentally challenged or drugged. Multiple witnesses confirmed this…. There are many syringe marks on his body, and it appears that he caught an infection from them. It seems a case of drug abuse. We can say for sure once the post-mortem report comes.”

The PDP accused the National Conference government of a “deafening” silence over Bhat’s death despite having received a massive mandate to speak up for Kashmiris.

Zuhaib Yousuf Bhat, a PDP leader, spoke of concern that Bhat’s death was linked tothe “xenophobia post-Pahalgam incident”.

“I hope an investigation is done in a timely manner and justice is served,” he said.

Former Srinagar mayor Junaid Azim Mattu said Bhat had died in Delhi under mysterious circumstances “indicating physical assault”. He asked the Delhi governmentto investigate.

Bhat had recently returned home to Srinagar but left again on May 29. He was to receive guests from Bangladesh and accompany them back to Kashmir, his family said.

Additional reporting by our Delhi bureau