Ummer Fayaz's killing: Hizbul Mujahideen militants may have killed army officer using INSAS rifle, says J&K Police

The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Thursday said that the militants belonging to terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen may have been killed Kashmiri army officer Lt Ummer Fayaz. They also suspect that an an INSAS rifle snatched from cops could have been used in his killing.

A senior police official said that there were no marks on any torture on Fayaz’s body and said that the post-mortem report was awaited.

“We have conducted preliminary investigations. It does point out to (the involvement of) a module of Hizbul Mujahideen active in Shopian,” Inspector General of Police Kashmir S J M Gillani said.

Two empty cartridges of an INSAS rifle were recovered by police from the place where Fayaz was shot dead by the militants in Shopian after being kidnapped.

“We had two incidents of weapon-snatching in south Kashmir recently. We have leads that the Kulgam snatching was carried out by Lashkar militants while Hizb militants were involved in weapon-snatching at Shopian court complex (on May 2). So it could be one of those weapons,” he said.

Gillani said the post mortem report was awaited but added that there were no torture marks on Fayaz’s body. “The doctors and police officers who examined the body did not find any torture marks,” he said.

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Fayaz had gone to attend the wedding of the daughter of his maternal uncle at Batapura, about 74 kms from here, from where he was abducted by the militants at around 10 pm on Tuesday. His bullet riddled body was found yesterday morning.

On his first leave since joining the Army, he had reached Batapura from Akhnoor in Jammu region where he was posted with 2 Rajputana Rifles.

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Hailing from Kulgam district, Fayaz was commissioned in the Army in December last year. The Army has vowed “to bring the perpetrators of this heinous act of terror to justice”. 

(With inputs from PTI)