Man’s body with torture marks found buried in Kulgam orchard

‘He was beaten to death, 3 arrested,’ says SSP

Kulgam: More than month and half after he was abducted, police found body of a man, Sheraz Ahmad Bhat son of Ghulam Ahmad Bhat, from his native Kulgam district of South Kashmir on Tuesday.

The body bearing torture marks was buried in the orchard and was recovered by the police on the information received by it, the officials said.

Sheraz was abducted on October 25 from his home at Laroo Kulgam, three days after a gunfight

in Laroo Kulgam. Three militants were killed in the gunfight while seven civilians lost their life due to the explosion near the site of encounter.

“We had registered an FIR 170/2018 u/s 364, 120 B RPC and 7/27 Arms Act. During the course of investigation we came to know that two Jaish-e-Mohammad militants of Pakistan along with local OGWs kidnapped Sheeraz in a vehicle and had beaten him to death and later buried him in an orchard,” SSP Kulgam Harmeet Singh told reporters.

“In this connection, we made three arrests so far and they have disclosed the place where they had buried the body and today we recovered the body from the orchard,” the SSP said, adding, “More arrests are expected.”

Asked why he was abducted and killed, SSP said that perhaps the militants suspected that Sheraz passed on information or “there was skirmish with him.” (GNS)