Family of Hajin school driver alleges foul play in his death

Bandipora, Nov 5: The family of a school bus driver, whose body was fished out from a stream in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district on Saturday after he remained missing for eight days, has alleged that he was murdered.

Manzoor Ahmad Khan, from PribalHajin, had been missing since October 26 evening, the family said. He was last spotted by his younger brother in his orchard on the village outskirts, according to the family.

Umar Tariq, Khan’s cousin, said they had searched for him everywhere from the day he went missing, with the help of police and SDRF to locate his body in the streams near the orchard, but to no avail.

When the family suddenly received a call to identify a body in NichairNallah on Saturday at 9:00 am, Tariq and a village Sarpanch, Farooq Ahmad, along with other family members, went to identify the body.

“He was heavy and swollen. We were able to identify him by a mole on his nose,” Tariq said.

“Although the right part of the head seemed okay, the left side had trauma and was swollen. There were injuries in the back of his head too,” Tariq said, claiming he was among people who helped pull the body out from the Nallah.

He claimed that besides these injuries, he had bluish underarms and chest.

Tariq said there were missing items, which included a jacket that he wore, shoes, and a wallet with some cash, which made them more firm that he was murdered.

“It is 100 percent murder,” Tariq said. The family said that the day after Khan went missing they had provided the “suspect list” of people to the police who were last seen with him.

He said that all of them were "picked up" by police, on Saturday soon after the body was found, for questioning.

He said the police told them they suspected it was a murder and were awaiting an FSL report. “We don’t claim the people he was last with might have murdered him, but they must know what had happened,” Tariq claimed.

The Block Medical Officer Bandipora, DrIdrees Ahmad, told Greater Kashmir that even though the postmortem had been done, “the final report would be provided by FSL”.

He said they were not in a position as of now to reveal the cause of death, which would be determined by the FSL report and police investigation.

Station House Officer, Police Station Hajin, told Greater Kashmir that “all the angles are being investigated” and some persons had been questioned.

He also said that FSL would determine the further course of action.

Meanwhile, the body of a missing elderly person identified as Mohammad Sultan, 65 from TA Shah in Bandipora was recovered from Jehlum in Sumbal. Sultan, who was reportedly mentally unsound, had been missing since October 26.