19-yr-old abducted, killed in Kashmir

SRINAGAR: A 19-year-old man was killed hours after he was abducted along with two other civilians by suspected militants in south Kashmir’s Shopian district Saturday, police said.

They said three civilians – Shahid Ganaie, Farooq Thokar and Huzaif Ashraf alias Raja Kandur– were taken away by militants from a bakery in Saidpora Payeen village of Shopian in the morning. Superintendent of police in Shopian, Sandeep Choudhary, said Ashraf’s body was recovered from Hermain village of Shopian in the evening. “He was kidnapped by terrorists this morning from Saidpora… and was later killed by them,” Choudhary said, adding the other two persons were released.

The officer didn’t specify how the man was killed but local reports said his body was found with the throat slit. While Ganaie and Thokar are from Saidpora Payeen, Ashraf was from Manzgam, Kulgam district. According to villagers, the slain man was a baker. It was not clear why they were abducted and Ashraf killed. A police officer said the three had no ‘political or

LOCAL REPORTS SAID TWO MORE CIVILIANS WERE ABDUCTED FROM SHOPIAN ON SATURDAY EVENING BUT POLICE HAVE NOT CONFIRMED IT

any other’ links that normally trigger such abductions by militants.

Local reports said two more civilians were abducted from Meemender village of Shopian on Saturday evening but police have not confirmed it.

This is the second incident of abduction and killing in Shopian this week. On Thursday, the bullet-riddled body of Nadeem Manzoor, 18, was found in neighbouring Pulwama district.

Reacting to Saturday’s killing, former chief minister Omar Abdullah tweeted: “Another dastardly killing of a young man, this time the terrorists slit his throat. This barbarism has no place in our society & no struggle, no matter how lofty the claims to justify it, can condone this inhuman behaviour.” BJP state spokesman Altaf Thakur termed the killings and abductions “totally senseless”.