Hyderpora encounter: Bodies of two civilians exhumed, to be handed over to families

Srinagar, Nov 18: The bodies of two businessmen, Mohammad Altaf Bhat and Mudasir Gul, killed in the Hyderpora encounter have been exhumed, will be handed over to their families. This will be for the first time that the body of a person buried under police watch is returned to his kin since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March last year.

The bodies were exhumed after sundown and are likely to be handed over to their families later in the night, officials told PTI. The bodies, accompanied by a police team, are being moved to Srinagar from Handwara where they were initially buried, the officials said.

Earlier in the day, a magisterial probe was ordered amid protests by families of three of the four persons killed in the encounter claiming their relatives were innocent.

The kin of Mohammad Altaf Bhat (building owner), Mudasir Gul (tenant) and Amir Magray (Gul's office boy) have been protesting against the killings which they described as cold blooded murder. The relatives of Bhat and Gul were camping at Press Colony since Wednesday morning, to press for return of the bodies which were buried in the dead of night of Monday at Handwara in North Kashmir.

The day began with viral videos doing rounds which showed police removing families of two civilians from the protest site at Residency Road around midnight.

The families were taken for a meeting with senior officials at police control room Kashmir in which they reiterated their demand for return of the bodies.

Bhat's family welcomed the probe ordered by the administration but appealed to the Lt Governor to return his body so that his kids can see him for one last time.

with PTI inputs