Srinagar: Following High Court directions, authorities handed over the body of a youth from Barzulla to his family on Tuesday, more than a month after he was killed in “encounter” in Kupwara district of north Kashmir, police said.
The slain youth was buried at Jumgund forests in the Kupwara on June 29 after police failed to establish his identity.
However days later, a family from Barzulla claimed that the youth killed in Kupwara on June 29 was their son Mudasir Ahmad Bhat, a resident of Nasti Mohalla Old Barzulla.
The father, Ghulam Muhammad Bhat of Srinagar’s Barzulla area, approached the district magistrate Kupwara for DNA matching of the dead militant. He had recognized his son’s photograph in Kralpora police station of the north Kashmir Kupwara.
“The sampling report confirmed that the DNA of the slain militant matched with that of his father. The district magistrate ordered to handover the mortal remains to the family after exhumation,” a police officer said.
On last Wednesday, The J&K High Court granted government week’s time on DNA profiling of Mudasir Ahmad Bhat. The court was hearing a petition filed by Ghulam Muhammad Bhat who had approached the state’s top court through his counsel, Mian Abdul Qayomm, seeking directions for the exhuming of the mortal remains to be buried in accordance with the Muslim rites.
“The body of Mudasir was exhumed at 04:40 pm and handed over to his legal heirs,” the official said.