Targetting the Qazigund-Baramulla railway project for the first time, suspected militants today executed a railway engineer and his 18-year-old brother after keeping them in captivity for two days. Police, however, claimed the men were killed because the militants failed to get any ransom money. Jammu and Kashmir IGP K Rajendra said they suspected it to be the handiwork of a Lashkar-e-Toiba group, led by militant Shaheen, which had been extorting money from railway contractors. Bodies of Sudhir Kumar Pundir, an IRCON junior engineer, and his brother Sandeep were recovered from the Sugan forest in Pulwama this afternoon. Police said the bodies bore deep cuts, indicating that they had been tortured before they were killed. A knife — of the kind used by butchers — and a rope were found near the bodies. A search led to the recovery of a diary and a few coins. The two brothers were kidnapped along with a local labour-hand Fayaz Ahmad Kuchay and their driver Shabir Ahmad from Gulzar Takna near Awantipora on Wednesday. Their abductors, who initially demanded Rs 50 lakh in exchange for their release, surprised police when they released Kuchay and Ahmad. Today, it took police and an Army patrol more than five hours to reach the spot where the bodies had been buried. Police mounted a search in the militant-infested area after local residents spotted fresh blood on a mountain pathway. A Tata Sumo, in which the four were abducted on Wednesday, was found and securitymen later came across freshly dug earth. The bodies, found buried at the spot, were taken to Pulwama police lines where Pundir’s colleague, Fayaz Ahmad Bhat, indentified them. Weeping, Bhat said Pundir had been working with him for the last two years and his 18-year-old brother had come to visit him two days before the abduction. In Srinagar, police said the duo was killed because the railways could not arrange a ransom. ‘‘It is a ransom killing. Had contractor rivalry been behind the killings, why would they kill the engineer’s brother?’’ a senior police officer told The Indian Express. According to the officer, militants used to take a cut from contractors but this source had dried up in recent months. ‘‘They thought abduction would help them get the money. When they failed, they killed them,’’ the officer added.
