Body of one of the militant, Mudasir Ahmad, has reached home

Srinagar: The bodies of two militants, who were killed in Tanghdar gunfight, have been exhumed and handed over to their families, official sources said.

Sources said after getting formal orders from the administration, the members of police, administration, and relatives of the deceased militants exhumed the bodies from the graves.

Later, they were handed over to the families after DNA and other forensic samples were extracted to establish their identity.

Earlier in the evening, Senior Superintendent of Police Kupwara, Ambarkar Shiram Dinkar had told The Kashmir Press that the bodies of two militants were exhumed after getting the formal orders from the district magistrate.

He had further said that they were about to hand over the bodies of militants to their families.

On May 25 five militants were killed in Tangdhar sector near the Line of Control in the Bhadwan area of North Kashmir’s Kupwara district.

However, after their pictures were circulated on social media, the two families of Kulgam and Pulwama claimed that the duo was their sons.

They had demanded exhumation of their bodies to be handed over to them for proper burial.

Following this the respective Deputy Commissioners of Kulgam and Pulwama, had assured that the bodies of the youth would be exhumed after some fulfilling some basic requirements and then handed over to their families so they could perform the last rites.

The duo were identified as Mudasir Ahmad, a school teacher from the Perigam area of Kulgam, and Shiraz Ahmad Sheikh of Lajoora Pulwama, were killed in an encounter with government forces at the Tangdhar sector of Kupwara on May 25.

They were killed along with three associates when the army claimed that they had killed five militants trying to infiltrate near the eagle post in Tangdhar sector along the Line of Control (LOC) in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district.

The police said that Shiraz had been missing from home since September 2017 and had crossed the LOC, adding, Mudasir had proper valid visa for Pakistan and it is believed that he may have crossed the border with the help of the visa.