Srinagar, Nov 19 :The mortal remains of two civilians killed in a controversial Hyderpora gunfight on Monday night were exhumed from Handwara graveyard and finally buried in their ancestral graveyards in Srinagar, sources said.
The bodies Altaf Ahmad Bhat and Mudasir Gul were exhumed Thursday evening from Handwara in frontier Kupwara district in presence of a magistrate. They were later handed over to the families around midnight for burial at Barzulla and Pirabagh graveyards in the city.
A large deployment of forces was made around the houses of Bhat and Gul to ensure peace, official sources said.
As the bodies reached their respective homes, emotional scenes were witnessed. Officials asked families to restrict the burial rites to close relatives.
Bhat and Gul were killed in a controversial encounter that left four persons including a suspected Pakistani militant dead.
Police had claimed that out of the four, two were terrorists. Police had termed Gul a terrorist associate. At least three families including that of Bhat and Gul contested the police claim saying they were innocent civilians.
While Bhat owned the building where the “encounter” took place, Gul had rented accommodation in the building. The bodies were later buried by police on Tuesday at a far-off hillock at Wadderbala Handwara, some 100 kms from Srinagar, in absence of family members, as is usually done for terrorists killed.
However, the families of the two slain Srinagar residents hit the roads and demanded handing over the bodies. Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah also staged a sit-in to seek bodies of the civilians. Protests to plead for the bodies also took place in various parts of the Kashmir Valley.
Under pressure after an outrage, the Jammu and Kashmir government ordered a magisterial probe into the encounter and then the bodies were exhumed.
A separatist group has also called for a Friday shutdown over the Hyderpora incident.
