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

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

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

This is the first time that a body of a person buried under police watch is being returned to his kin since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in March last year.

A girl weeps after her father Mohammad Altaf Bhat, the owner of a shopping centre, was killed in Srinagar, Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021. (AP)

The development comes hours after Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Thursday ordered a magisterial probe into the encounter in which four people were killed.

While police claimed that two militants, along with an over-ground worker (OGW) and the owner of the commercial building where the encounter took place, were killed in a gunfight, families of those killed disputed the police version.

They claimed at least three of the four deceased — Altaf Ahmad Bhat, Dr Mudassir Gul and Aamir Magray — were innocent and demanded their bodies be handed over which were buried in Handwara, more than 70 kilometres from Srinagar.

On Wednesday, the families of Altaf and Gul, during a protest at Press Enclave in the city, demanded their bodies be returned to them as they were not militants or OGWs.

Omar Abdullah, Jammu & Kashmir National Conference Vice President and former chief minister, with party leaders during a sit-in protest demanding a probe into the killings of civilians Altaf Ahmad Bhat & Mudasir Gul and the return of their bodies, in Srinagar, Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021. (PTI)

Speaking to reporters, Altaf Bhat’s brother Abdul Majeed said as a ‘numberdar’ (revenue official), he remains in constant touch with the police and they would have informed him if his brother was involved in militancy.

Political parties in the Valley had also condemned the killings and demanded a probe into the encounter. National Conference leader Omar Abdullah had also staged a sit-in demanding the return of bodies of those killed.