Hit on the back but no bullet mark on car seat, says victim’s father

“We found his body inside the vehicle but there was no blood inside (the car),” said Abdul Rashid Lone, father of Gowhar (23). “He was hit on the back, but there was no bullet in the back of the (car) seat. In all probability, he had been killed after dragging him out of his car or they (forces) had taken him to their camp and killed there , and then put the body back in the car.”

Coming from a family of apple growers, Gowhar had returned to his village last year after eight years in Nagpur, studying physical education. At Pinjoora, hundreds of mourners streamed into a grand two-storey house of the Wagays – another family of apple growers. Suhail Khalil Wagay (24), the family said, had left home to pick up his mother from his sister’s home in neighbouring Pehlipora village.

Suhail’s brother-in-law Nisar Ahmad said that after they heard the firing “we called him again to tell him not to come but he didn’t take our call”. The 24-year-old Suhail had studied up to class XII and was helping the family in the apple business. “We don’t know what happened there (at shootout site). It was dark and there is no eyewitness,” Nisar said. “What we know is that he left home to pick up his mother — he was accompanied by Shahnawaz.”

In between Mool and Pinjoora is Trenz, the native village of Shahnawaz Ahmad Wagay. A labourer, 24-year-old Shahnawaz was a helper of Wagay’s. He was travelling with Suhail in later’s Maruti Swift car when they were killed. “He (Shahnawaz) left home for his aunt’s house. He told us that he will return in the evening,” said his brother Farooq Ahmad Wagay, a carpenter. “When he didn’t return in the evening, we called him but there was no answer. Then we heard that he has been killed.”

Shahnawaz dropped out of the school in class X to earn a livelihood and help his family. The villagers remember his as a youth who would always have a spade in hand. At a small distance from Shahnawaz’s home lived Shahid Ahmad Khan, the youngest of the four civilians killed in Sunday’s shootout. Shahid was accompanying Suhail and Shahnawaz in Suhail’s car when it was fired at.

A resident of Malikgund, Shahid, a student of class XII, had left home before noon for Shopian. “He said he has to submit some documents in a company for some job,” said his father Bashir Ahmad Khan. “He returned at around 4 pm and handed the documents over to his sister. He then left home again, saying he will go to play cricket.”