Azhar Qadri

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, April 6

The police on Friday recovered the headless body of the youth who was abducted by militants from Hajin in Bandipora district of north Kashmir on Wednesday night.Manzoor Ahmad Bhat, 25, along with his father, Abdul Gaffar Bhat, was abducted on Wednesday night by militants and his body was recovered on Friday morning from the outskirts of the village, the police said. This is the second such civilian killing this week.“Terrorists have exhibited the highest level of bruteness as they have left the body of the innocent person headless,” said senior superintendent of police, Bandipora, Sheikh Zulfikar. Manzoor’s father, who was also abducted, had managed to escape but suffered injuries as a militant had fired at him. He is under treatment at a hospital.A police official said militants, believed to be affiliated with the Lashkar-e-Toiba, had abducted Abdul Bhat and Manzoor from their house on Wednesday night. “Two or three militants had barged into the house and abducted Bhat and his father, while two or three militants were outside,” the official said.It is rare, though not unprecedented, in Kashmir that a civilian is beheaded and most of the killings attributed to militants have been previously caused by gunshot wounds.The official said that the militants involved in the beheading included a local Lashkar-e-Toiba militant, Saleem Parray, whose name had also figured in a similar abduction and killing of another civilian, Naseer Ahmad Parray, who was shot dead earlier this week.Saleem, a resident of Hajin, had joined the Lashkar last year and is believed to be a part of a group that has five foreign militants. The five foreign militants, involved in Naseer’s killing, have been identified as Abu Muslim, Hubaib, Khalid, Abu Hamza and Haider.

Lashkar base in village

Hajin emerged on the militant landscape in recent years. The village had remained the headquarters of a counter-insurgency militia, which killed militants and their sympathisers. The village, however, became a stronghold of militants during the last two years as the Lashkar established a strong base in Hajin. Last year, six militants and a commando from the Air Force’s elite Garud unit were killed in a swift counter-insurgency operation in Hajin. Two Garud commandos were also killed in Hajin in a separate gunfight last year.A BSF soldier, who was on vacation at home in Hajin, was also killed by militants last year and a counter-insurgency militia commander, Rashid Billa, was also shot dead as militants strengthened their presence in Hajin.