Srinagar
Army on Thursday handed over the body of an eight-year-old of Pakistan-administered Kashmir boy whose body was fished out of Kishenganga river in Gurez valley of north Kashmir’s Bandipora district, a statement said.
It said on July 9 2019, a dead body was recovered from the Burzil Nala close to the Line of Control near Acchura village.
“The Indian Army responded immediately and were able to establish the identity of the young boy through the civil administration as a seven-year-old Abid Ahmad Sheikh, a resident of Minimarg across the Line of Control in the Gilgit region,” said the statement.
The statement said that as per the reports on social media, young Abid was missing since July 08 2019 and people suspected that he could have slipped into the Burzil Nala.
“In accordance with its ethos and as a humanitarian gesture the Indian Army established contact with the Pakistan Army on hotline and also convinced the civil administration to delay the last rites,” it said.
“The local religious head and village elders were taken in confidence to support the noble gesture of handing over the mortal remains to the family of the deceased boy at the earliest,” it added.
“The locals also offered prayers for the departed at the Dawar Mosque,” said the statement.
Meanwhile, the social media kept buzzing throughout with pleas and requests from both sides of the Line of Control to hand over the mortal remains of young Abid to his parents.
“On July 10 2019, the Commanders of the local formations of the Indian Army at Gurez made sincere efforts to hand over the dead body to the Pakistani counterparts in Minimarg, but to no avail,” it said.
“The Commanders at the highest level of Indian Army had to intervene and finally the mortal remains have been handed over to the Pakistan Army on July 11, 2019, near village Dudhgai,” said the statement.
