Bodies of 2 civilians killed in Hyderpora shootout exhumed

Authorities on Thursday exhumed the bodies of Mohammad Altaf Bhat and Mudasir Gul, two civilians killed in the Hyderpora encounter, for handing them over to their families, officials said.

The bodies were exhumed after sundown and are likely to be handed over to their families later in the night, they said.

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, accompanied by a police team, are being moved to Srinagar from Handwara where they were initially buried, the officials said.

"Have been informed that the bodies of Altaf Ahmed and Mudasir Gul have been exhumed at Handwara for last rites and burial by families. This is the first step towards ensuring justice is done in this case. I also hope the magisterial probe is now changed into a judicial probe," Srinagar Mayor Junaid Azim Mattu said in a tweet.

The Jammu and Kashmir government has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the Hyderpora encounter.

An encounter between security forces and terrorists had broken out in the Hyderpora area of Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir on November 15 after input was received by police regarding the presence of terrorists in an illegal call centre in a private building in the area.

The Jammu and Kashmir police said that two terrorists identified as Haider, a Pakistani terrorist and his associate Amir Ahmad resident of Banihal, were killed in the encounter.

However, in the encounter with terrorists, the owner of the building, Altaf Ahmad, as well as his tenant, Mudasir Ahmad, received critical gunshot injuries and succumbed to their injuries.