Padder posing with Naveed Jutt after the later was freed from the police custody

After eighteen rounds of funeral prayers were held for top Hizb Commander Saddam Padder, Bilal Molvi in his native village in South Kashmir’s Shopian district, both were buried in their home-town on Monday.

Eye witnesses said that the slain commander and his associate were buried after eighteen back to back funerals since Sunday evening.

Reports said that his brother offered gun salutes to him. His mother and sister also gave him the gun salutes, they added.

“His mother bid him an adieu after firing several gun shots in the air by using the rifle of his associate,” a witness said.

Sources said that despite restrictions in the valley, people from Shopian and adjoining villages managed to reach his native village to participate in his funeral prayers.

Sadam was killed in an encounter with government forces’ along with his four associates, including Kashmir University professor Dr. Mohammad Rafi Bhat.

Rafi was missing since Friday  from the Kashmir university.

On Sunday, soon after the cordon was launched in Bandigam village, it came to know that he (professor) was among the five militants trapped inside the house.

Police called his family and his university mates to persuade him to surrender. But he refused their call.

In the backlash of encounter, clashes erupted between the youths and forces’ in which five civilians were killed by the government forces and over a dozen protesters had sustained firearm injuries near the encounter site and other places.

Reacting over the killing of the professor, former chief minister Omar Abdullah in a tweet said “KU professor’s death is the answer to those who say that jobs are the solution to violence and alienation in Kashmir”.