Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir): The Jammu and Kashmir police on Friday confirmed that the DNA samples of three slain youth from Rajouri, killed in an alleged fake encounter in Shopian district on July 18, have "positively matched" with their families and further investigation by the police into the incident is on.
"Today, we received the results of the DNA of the three slain persons and they have had positive matching with the DNA of their families. Police will carry on the further probe into the incident," Inspector General of Police Kashmir Zone Vijay Kumar said while addressing a press conference in Srinagar.
Vijay Kumar said further probe into the 'encounter' was on Earlier on July 18, the army claimed to have killed three unidentified militants in an encounter in the Amshipora area of Shopian in South Kashmir. However, a month later, three families from Rajouri claimed that the three persons killed in the "encounter" were possibly their sons as they had travelled to Shopian in order to find some labour work.
The families identified the three slain as Imtiyaz Ahmad, Abrar Ahmad, and Mohammad Ibrar, on the basis of photographs circulated on social media.
The police and the army had initiated a probe into the incident. The families had also filed a missing report with the police in Rajouri, and have been demanding that the bodies be handed over to them for the last rites.
The police had collected DNA samples from the parents of three slain youth, and today, a month later, the results of the DNA samples were confirmed by the police.
Read: Shopian encounter: Army finds 'prima facie' evidence against its men, initiates proceedings under Army Act
On September 18, in a brief statement, the Army had stated that the Shopian operation contravened the dos and don'ts of the Chief of Army Staff approved by the Supreme Court.
"The inquiry has brought out certain prima facie evidence indicating that during the operation, powers vested under the AFSPA 1990 were exceeded and the Do's and Don'ts of Chief of Army Staff as approved by the Supreme Court have been contravened. Consequently, the competent disciplinary authority has directed to initiate disciplinary proceedings under the Army Act against those found prima-facie answerable," the statement had said.
'Probe into lawyer's killing top priority'
Meanwhile, Vijay Kumar said that police has constituted a Special Investigation Team to identify the two militants and their associates who killed the young lawyer in Hawal area of Srinagar on Thursday evening.
"The probe into the killing of the lawyer is our top priority. Two unidentified militants fired on the lawyer inside the premises of his home after entering inside by posing as clients. We have taken the CCTV footage of the locality. The hunt for the two militants is on. They will be either arrested or killed in an encounter," Kumar said.
Read: Advocate Babar Qadri shot dead by militants in Srinagar
He said that Babar Qadri had received threats but did not seek police security. "Our local police had told him to shift to some safer place. But he had refused to relocate. He also did not want to have security guards," Kumar said.
Meanwhile, on the killing of a Sopore youth, Irfan Ahmad Dar, in alleged custody, Kumar said that two police officials were suspended because the slain youth fled from their custody.
On the Budgam attack in which a CRPF ASI was killed on Thursday, the IGP said that JeM militants were involved in the attack and they fired from an M-4 rifle.
