Samples of 2 Hizb terrorists killed in Kulgam test +ve

SRINAGAR:: The samples of two Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists, including a foreigner, who were killed in an encounter with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kulgam district on Saturday have tested positive for Covid-19, police said.

The samples of the two terrorists were taken for testing during medico-legal formalities and their reports came out positive on Sunday.

This is for the first time that any militant has tested positive for the disease since the police in April started burying bodies of local militants far away from their native places to avoid large gatherings amid the pandemic.

The terrorists were killed in an encounter in Arrah area of Kulgam. One of the two terrorists was a foreigner and identified as Ali Bhai alias Hyder.

“The test reports were received from Chest Diseases Hospital Srinagar and both the slain terrorists were confirmed as coronavirus positive,” a police spokesman said. Their bodies will be taken in protective care ambulance and buried strictly as per the protocol in Baramulla, he added. Since the Covid-19 outbreak, the burials of militants are carried out at designated places to minimise the risk of people contracting the infection.

Medico-legal formalities, which include post-mortem, DNA and Covid-19 tests, are strictly followed in respect of such slain militants, the spokesman said.

On April 9, police had registered a case and arrested 10 people for gathering at Saidpora during the funeral of a local Jaish-eMohammed militant killed in Sopore gunfight. They were charged for violating the administration’s order to enforce a ban on social gathering in a bid to contain the spread of virus.