No trace of missing Kulgam soldier

Srinagar: While the family of the missing Army soldier continued to appeal for the release of their son, so far there is no clue of his whereabouts even as intense investigation has been started and several persons have been questioned by Police in this connection.

“So far there is no breakthrough and our intense investigations are underway,” a senior Police officer said here.

He said several suspects had so far been questioned.

“Besides we are carrying out regular search operations and every effort is being made to rescue the missing soldier,” he said. The soldier who was on leave went missing from his village in Kulgam district of south Kashmir on Saturday evening.

Fearing his abduction, the J&K Police, Army, and paramilitary forces have launched a search operation while his mother has appealed for his safe return home.

Police sources said that the soldier, Javaid Ahmad Wani, 25, of Achathal village in Kulgam went missing after he left home to buy something for Chawalgam village of the same district on Saturday evening.

Police sources said Wani’s car was found at Paranhal village, about 9 km from his Achathal residence.

They said that while the car was unlocked, Wani’s slippers and some bloodstains were found inside.

His mother has again released a video message pleading for his safe return home. “He is innocent and young. If he has done anything wrong, I seek forgiveness for that,” she said in her video message.

Without naming anyone, she appealed “to one and all to allow my son to return home”.

Wani’s father said he was supposed to join work on Monday.“I appeal to all the brothers to let him go alive. If he has troubled anyone, I apologise for that. If they want, I will get him to quit his job as well,” said the father, Muhammad Ayoub Wani. “He told his brother to drop him at the airport on Monday. We got a call that his car was found abandoned with its doors ajar.”

In the past, there have been incidents of abduction and killing of security personnel who were home on leave.

In March last year, a soldier, Sameer Ahmad Malla, was abducted from his home at Khag village in Shopian.

His body was recovered from a nearby village three days later.