Jammu: The Bodies of a teenager and his two relatives were retrieved from near a waterfall in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district on Saturday, three days after they went missing during a function at their house, officials said.
Independent MLA from Bani Assembly constituency in Kathua, Rameshwar Singh, who had gone to meet the family members of the deceased at the local hospital, was heckled by a group of protesters. Singh’s security guards had to intervene and escort him away.
The Jammu and Kashmir Congress has demanded a high-level investigation into the incident in Billawar tehsil to “bring out the truth and clear the apprehensions of locals”.
The bodies of Varun Singh, 15 of Dehota, his uncle Yogesh Singh, 32, and maternal uncle Darshan Singh, 40, were sighted in Ishu nullah in the remote Malhar area in the higher reaches of the district by drones during a joint search operation by police and the Army late afternoon, they said.
The bodies were later retrieved from the scene after hectic efforts as the area was steep, the officials said, adding preliminary investigation has ruled out any terror angle as there were no visible marks of injury on the bodies. The exact cause of their death would be known only after a postmortem, they said.
In a statement issued on Saturday night, the Jammu and Kashmir Police said, “On March 6, a missing case was reported at Malhar Police Station in which three members of a family, who were part of a barat (wedding procession) going from Marhoon to Surag, had gone missing on March 5.”
“The police, the Army, CRPF, Special Operations Group, and Village Defence Guards launched a large-scale search operation… The bodies were recovered today (Saturday) from a waterfall. An investigation is ongoing, and a board of doctors has been formed for a post-mortem to ascertain the cause of death,” it said.
Earlier, the officials said Darshan’s brother Brijesh was getting married, and the trio had left in advance for the bride’s house at Lohai Malhar in the Billawar Tehsil at around 5.30 pm.
However, Darshan made the last call at around 8.30 pm, informing them they had lost their way.
As they failed to return, a search operation by police and the Army was launched to trace them as the area has witnessed several terror incidents, including an attack on an Army vehicle that left five soldiers dead last year.
BJP legislator from Billawar, Satesh Sharma, had raised the issue in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly on Friday.
“I want to inform the House about three missing civilians. We seek answers from the government,” Sharma said.
On February 16, the bodies of two villagers — Shamsher, 37, and Roshan, 45, — were found at Kohag village in Billawar, and their postmortem revealed they were strangled to death.
Reacting to his heckling at the hospital in Kathua, legislator Rameshwar Singh said it was an attempt to vitiate the atmosphere.
“I want to tell those who attacked me not to vitiate the atmosphere. Since the day they (trio) went missing, I had been raising my voice for them and was also in touch with police,” Singh told PTI.
Singh said he was attacked because he had also raised the issue of Makhan Din, a 25-year-old Gujjar youth from Billawar, who ended his life by consuming insecticide last month, alleging police torture over his suspected links with terrorists.
“Has speaking for a Muslim become a sin? Should we not raise the voice for Muslims? Anyone raising his voice for Muslims becomes a terrorist,” he said.
He said he will not be cowed down and will “continue to raise my voice for the victims, irrespective of their religion.”
Meanwhile, the Congress demanded a high-level investigation into both the incidents to “clear the apprehensions” of locals and overcome the current situation of “great fear and sense of insecurity” in the entire belt.
Jammu and Kashmir Congress chief Tariq Hameed Karra and other senior leaders have expressed concern over the two “shocking” incidents, one after the other, in Billawar, which reflects the “worrisome security and law and order situation” in the area, according to the statement issued by the party.
The Congress demanded that the LG administration and the central government take effective measures to bring the situation under control. The party also expressed sympathies with the bereaved families.
