Kashmiri Pandits block Jammu-Srinagar highway over cops' failure to trace constable

Jammu: Kashmiri Pandits on Sunday blocked the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway in protest against the police's "failure" to trace constable Sameer Kumar, who had been missing since May 14.

The Pandits have alleged foul play in the disappearance of the cop in view of increasing militancy in the Valley.

Hundreds of Kashmiri Pandit migrants from Nagrota and Jagti camps thronged the highway and held anti-government and anti-police protests for their laxity in the case.

However, based on the version of a Special Police Officer (SPO), who had accompanied the victim on the fateful day, the police said Kumar had gone to Kupwara along with a colleague and his uncle Head Constable Daleep Kumar.

"After dropping his uncle at the district police lines Kupwara, Kumar reached Yunsu bridge in the jurisdiction of police station Chogal Handwara and jumped into Puhro river," a police spokesman said.

Accordingly, a missing report was lodged in the police station Shergari at Srinagar in the case.

Police said the matter was being probed from all angles, adding that marine commandos of the navy were also pressed into service along with the police to trace the officer.

But the Pandit community has failed to buy the police's argument and is calling for an SIT probe into the matter.

"We demand a probe into the mysterious disappearance of constable Sameer Kumar as there seems some foul play in the circumstances of his sudden disappearance. Police has failed to trace him till now and is providing vague statements.

Police should trace him immediately," All Party Migrants Coordination Committee (APMCC) national spokesperson, King C Bharti said.

Sanjay Koul of of All J&K Displaced Youth Forum demanded withdrawal of the statement given by the police based on the version of SPO, which he termed as a "concocted and fabricated version to malign the image of the disappeared cop and his family."