J&K: 19-year-old kidnapped by militants found murdered

Srinagar: A 19-year-old youth among the three civilians abducted by suspected militants in Jammu and Kashmir’s southern Shopian district earlier during the day on Saturday has been found murdered, the police said.

The bullet-riddled corpse of the victim Huzaif Ashraf was found in Hermain village of Shopian on Saturday evening, the police said. The two others have been released unharmed, a report from the town, 52-km from here said.

This comes barely two days after an 11th class student Nadeem Manzoor was abducted and subsequently murdered allegedly by militants.

He was accused of leaking information about the presence of two Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militants in a village of Shopian to security forces recently leading to a fire fight in which both of them were killed.

The police sources confirmed that three civilians Shahid Ahmed Ganai, Huzaif Ahmed Kuttay and Farooq Ahmed were abducted by masked gunmen from Shopian’s Saidpora village early Saturday.

“The gunmen arrived at a bakery in Saipora village and took three civilians forcibly with them,” a police official said. On Saturday evening, the police said that one of the three civilians abducted at gunpoint by masked men earlier during the day has been killed.

The police identified the victim as 19-year-old Huzaif Ashraf, the son of a baker Muhammad Ashraf.

"Terrorists today killed a civilian in a brutal act of terror in Shopian after he was kidnapped earlier in the day from Saidpora area of the district", a police spokesman said here.

He added that the police retrieved the body of the civilian from  village Hermain in Shopian and later handed it over to his family after completion of medico-legal formalities.

Earlier on Thursday, gunmen believed to be the Hizb cadres abducted Nadeem Manzoor of Safnagri village of the district and soon shot him dead. His bullet riddled corpse was found in a village of neighbouring Pulwama district on Friday, the police said.

Former chief minister and vice president of National Conference (NC) Omar Abdullah termed Nadeem’s “cold blooded” murder as “deeply disturbing”. Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter.com on Saturday, Mr. Abdullah said, “The cold blooded murder of an 11th standard student by the Hizbul Mujahideen terror outfit is deeply disturbing. There can be no justification for this act & should force those who sympathise with these outfits to question how these murders make Kashmir a better, freer place.”

Earlier on Friday, a purported video emerged on social media showing militants firing a volley of bullets on Nadeem. In the video, the gunmen could be heard asking Nadeem why he tipped forces about two militants - Idrees Ahmad (Chota Abrar) of Safnagri and Amir Amin (Abu Shoban) of Awneera - who were killed in a gunfight with security forces in Safnagri recently.