Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir administration Saturday exhumed the bodies of three Rajouri youth, who had been missing since 17 July. They were later found to have been killed in an alleged gun fight with the Army in Kashmir’s Shopian district on 18 July.
According to Vijay Kumar, Inspector General of Police (Kashmir Division), the bodies were exhumed in the presence of family members who were brought to the Valley Friday evening. The officer said the bodies were then transported to Rajouri where they will be buried.
“The bodies were exhumed in the presence of the family members today morning. Police teams are currently on the way to Rajouri where the three deceased persons will be buried,” Kumar told ThePrint.
The exhumation, according to police officials, took place at around 6 am in the morning.
The three youth, all related and identified as Ibrar Ahmed (16), Imtiyaz Ahmed (25) and Ibrar Ahmed (20), were earlier buried in Sheeri, Baramulla in a graveyard, which is designated to bury mainly foreign and unidentified militants.
The exhumation came days after the J&K Police said DNA samples of the three youths had matched those of the individuals killed in the alleged gunfight.
Senior J&K police officers had earlier assured that the bodies of the youth would be returned to their families. The assurance came after relatives of the deceased expressed their wish to bury the youth in their native villages after offering janazah (funeral prayers) for them.
On Saturday, Naseeb Ahmed, a relative of the deceased youth said the family members, neighbours and people from several other villages arrived at the residences of the three deceased youth to offer their funeral prayers.
“It is a very difficult day for us. On one hand we are saddened that we have to bury our youth today but on the second hand we are also relieved that we at least got the bodies. Now the only thing that is left is to punish those responsible for the killings,” said Ahmed.
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The controversial case
In August, when pictures of three bodies from the Shopian Army encounter were circulated on social media, the families of the missing youth in Rajouri identified the dead as their relatives.
Last month, the Army said in a statement that prima facie evidence shows the Shopian encounter “exceeded” the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), and directions had been passed to initiate disciplinary proceedings against erring officials.
The move came after the J&K Police issued a press statement on 18 July in which it said the encounter followed a “specific input by 62RR (Rashtriya Rifles) about the presence of terrorists in the village Amshipora area of district Shopian”.
The statement marked a departure from the usual media missives to announce encounters. Such statements about joint operations in the Valley generally do not dwell on the chronology of participation, and simply name the agencies involved. The 18 July statement, however, specified that the police and the CRPF joined the encounter “later”.
Subsequently, police said the identities of the three killed youth men were being ascertained. They were then buried at a Baramulla graveyard.
On 11 August, ThePrint had retraced the journey of the three young men after they arrived in Shopian. All three worked as labourers and were seeking employment in an apple orchard.
The youth had left their residence in Rajouri on 16 July on foot, called home the next day at 7.30 pm from Shopian. They had even taken up a room before disappearing on the night of 17 July.
Now, the J&K Police has arrested two individuals in the case and a third individual has been questioned. However, the police are yet to officially acknowledge the exact roles the arrested individuals played in the controversial encounter on 18 July.
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