Bandipore, July 8: Two accused in the alleged fake encounter killing of 22-year-old labourer Muhammad Ashraf Sheikh of Larnoo Kokernag today said he was killed by a Major of Army’s 3 JAKLI. “Ashraf was killed by a Major of 3 JAKLI,” Tahir Pathan of 3 JAKLI and Reyaz Ahmad Cheechi, a government gunman, told the Sessions Judge here during the hearing of the case. Pathan told the judge that he didn’t kill Ashraf, but was present on the spot when he was killed. Cheechi also pleaded that he was not involved in Ashraf’s killing. “I picked up Ashraf from Dalgate but didn’t kill him. He was killed by the Major,” he told the judge. Muhammad Ashraf was killed allegedly in a fake encounter at Brar Bandipore on June 3 last after he went missing from his rented room at Srinagar. Ashraf worked in Srinagar and was staying in the rented room belonging to Parvez Ahmad Shalla of Dalgate. On June 3, Parvez called his family and told them that he had gone missing. Worried family members looked for him everywhere but to no avail. A missing report was also lodged in police station Dalgate. After 18 days, the family learnt that Ashraf had been killed in a fake encounter in Bandipore. The body, according to police, was handed over to them by 3 JAKLI saying that they had recovered it from a nearby forest. The family then sought permission of the district administration for exhumation of the body buried in a graveyard at Aarigam in Bandipore. The DNA test of Nazeer Ahmed Sheikh, brother of the deceased, was matched and it was confirmed that body was of Muhammad Ashraf Sheikh. Pathan and Cheechi were immediately arrested by police following their alleged involvement in the case. On Tuesday, both Cheechi of Chatty Banday and Pathan of Aloosa pleaded innocent before the court, but said Ashraf was killed by a Major. The court has sent both to a judicial remand till July 16.
@AZIM JAN (GK)
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
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