SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Nov 20 (NNN-PTI) – Authorities in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, exhumed two bodies of four men killed in a controversial gunfight, and handed them over to their families, officials said yesterday.
The exhumations were carried out Thursday evening, at a north-western village of Kupwara district, and the bodies were handed over to their families, late in the night in Srinagar city.
“Two bodies belonging to businessmen, Mudassir Gul and Mohammad Altaf Bhat, were exhumed from a graveyard, in far-off Handwara village last night (Thursday night),” a local government official said. “The bodies were later brought to Srinagar after securing an assurance from their families to keep the burial a low-key affair and peaceful.”
Eyewitnesses said, when the bodies were brought to their homes for reburial, relatives, including women, were seen wailing and beating their chests.
On Wednesday night, the police detained over a dozen relatives of the two families, as they protested demanding the bodies.
Meanwhile, a shutdown, called by the separatist alliance, All Parties Hurriyat Conference, against the controversial killings, have affected normal life in the region.
Shops, businesses and private offices in the region remained closed, in the wake of the shutdown. Reports said public transport also remained off the roads in the region.
In Feb, the police booked a resident of Pulwama district, under the anti-terror law, for campaigning to secure the body of his teenage son, who the authorities claimed was a militant.
A guerilla war has been going on between militants and Indian troopers, stationed in the region since 1989.– NNN-PTI
