J&K police had launched an investigation into the case. (Representative image)
The bodies of three Rajouri men who were killed in an alleged bogus encounter with the military in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir in July this year were exhumed and handed over to their families, officials said on Saturday. responsible.
The exhumation was carried out on Friday evening at an unidentified location in northern Kashmir – hours after Jammu and Kashmir Police Director General (DGP) Dilbag Singh said the legal procedure to exhume and handing over the bodies was underway and would be completed soon.
“The bodies of the three people were exhumed and then returned to their families,” officials said.
They said the families of the three men were called from Rajouri District in Jammu area and taken to where the trio were buried. Families will take the bodies to their hometowns for burial, they added.
The DGP said on Friday that the legal process to exhume the bodies had been initiated and will be completed soon.
On September 30, Kashmir Inspector General of Police (IGP) Vijay Kumar said that since the DNA samples matched the family, the three bodies will be exhumed and returned to the families after due process.
On July 18, the military claimed that three terrorists were killed in the village of Amshipura, in the heights of Shopian district, in southern Kashmir.
However, the military opened an investigation after social media reported that the three men were from Rajouri district in Jammu and disappeared in Amshipura. The families of Rajouri’s trio who worked as laborers at Shopian also filed a complaint with the police.
The military completed the investigation in a record time of four weeks, and on September 18, the force said it found “prima facie” evidence that its troops “exceeded” powers under the Special Powers Act. armed forces during the encounter and initiated disciplinary proceedings.
Police have also launched their investigations and collected DNA samples from families to match them with those who died.
