MUZAFFARABAD: Two directly elected members of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly from PML-N and PPP have called upon the government of Pakistan to take measures to reclaim the bodies of five innocent villagers from Neelum valley killed by the Indian army about two weeks ago.

On Oct 26, five residents of Saonar village, located around 175km northeast of here in Gurez sub-valley of Neelum valley, had gone missing while picking herbs and medicinal plants in the nearby forests which straddle the heavily militarised Line of Control (LoC).

According to villagers, Siddique, 40; Sher Afzal, 36; Fayyaz Ahmed, 37; Ghulam Rasool, 36; and Sarfraz, 40; were married and had children between the ages of one month and 15 years.

Their families waited in vain for them over the next 24 hours and were horrified by Indian media reports claiming that the Indian army had shot dead “five members of a militant organisation after they had infiltrated from across the divide”.

However, the Indian media had neither shown the bodies nor the weapons it claimed had been recovered from the slain “infiltrators.”

Ever since, their families and fellow villagers have been holding demonstrations to condemn Indian savagery on the one hand and press upon the governments in Islamabad and Muzaffarabad to do the needful to reclaim the bodies on the other.

“That the slain people were militants is an absurd and false allegation in its entirety,” said Shah Ghulam Qadir, regional president of PML-N, who has returned from the upper belt of Neelum valley.

In a video message and later in a phone call to Dawn on Tuesday, Mr Qadir condemned the killing of five men by the Indian army and said he could confirm that they were labourers who eked out a living from collection of herbs and medicinal plants from the forests.

“They are […] civilians and have nothing to do with militancy or any other [illegal] activity…. I strongly condemn Indian allegations, their attitude and aggression,” he said.

He urged the government of Pakistan to use all available channels to get possession of the bodies.

Separately, PPP’s regional senior vice president Mian Abdul Waheed, who has returned from the lower belt of Neelum valley and is minister for law, justice, human rights and parliamentary affairs, also condemned the killing of five innocent valley residents and called for diplomatic measures to reclaim their bodies.

“The government of Pakistan should lodge strong protest with the Indian government over the killing of innocent civilians and task the Foreign Office with claiming the bodies so that they can be buried by their families here,” he said at a press conference in Athmuqam.

He recalled that previously the Indian army had killed several innocent AJK civilians in a similar fashion while they grazed their cattle, cut fodder or plucked herbs along the LoC.

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2023