The team to Rajouri, led by a deputy superintendent of police, will collect DNA samples from families who have claimed the youths as their sons. (File)

AS A police team left for Rajouri on Thursday for investigation into the allegation that three youths killed in an “encounter” by the Army in Shopian on July 18 were labourers from there, IGP, Kashmir, Vijay Kumar said the probe would also look into whether the three had militant links.

Speaking to reporters, Kumar said, “The first thing is the matching of DNA samples and another thing is to investigate whether the three persons, who had come from Rajouri, were in contact with local militants or not.”

The team to Rajouri, led by a deputy superintendent of police, will collect DNA samples from families who have claimed the youths as their sons. These will be matched with the samples collected from the three killed in the July 18 encounter, before they were buried as “unidentified”, as per procedure.

The IGP said that since the three families had made the allegation, after coming across pictures of the killed “militants” on social media, they had been “trying to evaluate the case through all evidence, including technical”.

The police had distanced itself from the “encounter”, saying it was an Army operation, and that they and the paramilitary forces had “joined later”.

The Rajouri families have identified the three as cousins Imtiyaz Ahmad, Ibrar Ahmad and Mohammed Ibrar. They have claimed Ibrar Ahmed was just 16.