Body exhumed from Dalgate grave

Even as investigations into the fake encounter case progresses, police today exhumed the body of a woman, believed to be that of a missing constable, Nelofar Akther. Akther had gone missing while on duty over a year ago. Her family members allege that suspended Ganderbal SSP H R Parihaar and his juniors, named in the fake encounter case, had a hand in her disappearance.

“It was during interrogation that the Special Investigation Team looking into the fake encounter case, came to know that my wife was killed by her colleagues who were involved in killing civilians in fake encounters,” said Akther’s husband Tariq Ahmad Khan who was present at the Dalgate cemetery when the body was exhumed in presence of senior police officers. While the body was being exhumed, Tariq Khan said it was his wife’s. He said he could know it from her hair. “The body was in a highly decomposed state. But, still I could identify it,” he said. “My wife was eliminated to hide some secrets that she knew,” he said, adding that those responsible for it should get severe punishment. Police officials accompanied by forensic experts took samples from the highly decomposed body. The samples would be sent for DNA tests to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory Chandigarh. Police have already sent DNA samples of five civilians in the fake encounter case to CFSL, Chandigarh.

Akther, a resident of Gousia Colony, had served the police force for nine years till her disappearance when she was posted at BB Cantonment police post. Family members said Akther went missing on February 28, 2006. “Soon after her (Akther’s) disappearance, we filed a missing report at Bemina Police station,” said Khan. “We searched for her across the valley. But couldn’t find her,” he said.

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On April 4, police recovered a decomposed body from Dal Lake. At the time, family members said the body, which was later buried at Dalgate graveyard, was Akther’s. Relatives had been demanding exhumation of the body for several months now.

Deputy Inspector General of Police, Kashmir Range, Farooq Ahmad, who is investigating into the fake encounter case, said that a body was exhumed in Dalgate today. “Some time back, a police constable disappeared and after a few months, a decomposed body was fished out of the Dal Lake. Relatives of the constable said the body belongs to the missing constable,” he said.