Jawan abducted, killed in Valley
23-year-old soldier was home on vacation
An off-duty Army jawan was killed by suspected militants in Jammu and Kashmir’s southern Shopian district overnight, the police said on Saturday.
This is the 6th such incident in the restive Valley in the past seven months.
The bullet-riddled corpse of 23-year-old Territorial Army soldier Irfan Ahmed Dar, who had gone missing on Friday evening, was found in Shopian’s Wuthmulla Naad village on Saturday morning, the police said.
Locals said that they saw Dar’s body lying near a paddy field and immediately informed the police. He was wearing a pheran, traditional woollen robe. The police said he had been shot multiple times.
The jawan was a resident of Shopian’s Sanzan village and was posted in the Army’s Engineering Regiment in Gurez area close to the Line of Control (LoC) in Bandipore district. A defence spokesperson here said that Dar, a 175 Territorial Army official, was to return to his duty on November 26.
SSP Shopian Ambarkar Shriram said that Dar was apparently abducted and subsequently murdered by militants.
An off-duty Army jawan was killed by suspected militants in Jammu and Kashmir’s southern Shopian district overnight, the police said on Saturday.
“We have taken up investigations. It appears to be a case of kidnapping and murder and we suspect terrorists are involved,” he said.
No militant outfit active in J&K has, so far, claimed responsibility for killing Dar.
The deceased’s family told the police that Dar had come home on vacation. They said that he had left home in his car on Friday evening and did not return. His vehicle was found one kilometre from the place where his body was found on Saturday morning, the police said.
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who was touring neighbouring Kulgam district as part of her “public outreach”, condemned Dar’s murder. She tweeted, “Strongly condemn the brutal killing of Irfan Ahmed, a brave Territorial Army soldier at Shopian. Such heinous acts will not weaken our resolve to establish peace and normalcy in the Valley”.
Her predecessor and Opposition National Conference working president, Omar Abdullah, also took to the microblogging site to condemn the killing. He wrote, “The murder of young Irfan Dar is a very tragic & reprehensible act. My unqualified condemnation & heartfelt condolences to his family.”