While a search operation is underway to find terrorists responsible for the recent ambush on two Army trucks that left five troops dead, the Jammu and Kashmir administration on Saturday announced jobs and compensation to the relatives of the three civilians who were found dead in the Poonch region.
The three men, aged 27 to 42, were found dead on Friday under “mysterious circumstances”.
However, their family members and political leaders said that they were among the eight individuals whom the Army had detained for interrogation in relation to the ambush on Thursday.
Four more allegedly suffered “torture injuries” and were admitted to a government hospital.
The bodies of the civilians were laid to rest at their ancestral graveyard in Buffliaz Saturday afternoon, the officials said.
As the search operation was underway and the situation remained tense, the authorities suspended mobile Internet services in Poonch and neighbouring Rajouri district as a precautionary measure to check rumour-mongering and prevent any law and order problem, officials said.
Senior Army, police and civil officers are monitoring the situation, the sources said, adding additional police and paramilitary personnel were deployed in sensitive pockets of the districts to maintain peace
In a post on X, the Information and PR department of the Union Territory said, “The death of three civilians was reported yesterday in Baffliaz of Poonch District. The medico legal formalities were conducted and legal action in this matter has been initiated by the appropriate authority.” “Government has announced compensation for each of the deceased. Further Government has also announced compassionate appointments to the next of kin of each deceased,” it stated.
Five soldiers were killed and two injured when heavily armed terrorists ambushed two Army vehicles at a blind curve at Dhatyar Morh between Dhera Ki Gali and Bufliaz on Thursday.
The ambush took place when the security personnel were moving to an ongoing search operation in the general area of Dhera Ki Gali in the Thanamandi-Surankote region.
Soon after the ambush, security forces launched a massive search operation in the densely forested areas, also covering nearby Thanamandi in Rajouri, but there was no fresh contact with the fleeing terrorists so far, officials said.
Sound of firing was heard deep inside a forest in Dhera Ki Gali area Saturday afternoon but the security agencies later clarified that security forces resorted to speculative firing to check a natural cave.
Sources said the bodies of three slain civilians — Safeer Hussain (43), Mohd Showket (27) and Shabir Ahmad (32) of Topa Peer village of Buffliaz — were handed over to their families after a postmortem Saturday morning.
“All the three were innocent civilians and died of torture in the custody of the Army,” Mohd Sadiq, a relative of one of the deceased, said.
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