2nd kidnapping sees youth beheaded: J&K
The police have blamed both incidents on Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), designated as a terrorist group by India and the United States.
SRINAGAR: Gunmen beheaded a Kashmiri youth after kidnapping him and his father from their home in Hajin area of Jammu and Kashmir’s north-western district of Baramulla.
The police said that the headless body of the victim Manzoor Ahmed Butt was found lying in an apple orchard, a few kilometres away from his home in Hajin’s Bonkhan Mohalla, on Friday morning.
25-year-old Butt and his father were kidnapped by a group of suspected militants after barging into their house in Hajin during the intervening night of April 4 and 5.
The police said that slain youth’s father Abdul Gaffar succeeded in escaping from captivity on Wednesday night itself in spite of being shot in belly and attacked with knives. But the gunmen took his son with him and subsequently murdered him.
The gory incident comes two days after unidentified gunmen shot dead another resident of Hajin after kidnapping him from his in-laws house in the town, 35-km from here.
The police have blamed both incidents on Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), designated as a terrorist group by India and the United States. The outfit has not reacted to the charge, so far.
A report from Hajin said that headless body of Butt was found in the orchard by local residents. “They informed the police which relocated to the place and took up investigations. On completion of required formalities, the body was handed over to the family for performing last rites,” a police spokesman said.
The police said a local LeT’s cadre is behind the killing of Butt after his kidnapping. “Local LeT terrorist Muhammad Saleem Parray is believed to have played a major role in the killing of the youth,” it said in a statement here.
The police also said that the gunmen had after barging into Butt’s home beaten up the inmates before dragging the father-son duo and taking them along.
Earlier on Tuesday, another resident Muntazir Ahmad Parray was kidnapped by gunmen from the house of his father-in-law Farooq Ahmed Parray at Hajan. His bullet-riddled corpse was found on the outskirts of the township next day.