MUZAFFARABAD: Authorities in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) will hand over the bodies of a young man and woman to their counterparts in occupied Jammu and Kashmir through the Chakothi-Uri crossing point on Saturday, after both were recovered from the Jhelum River within two days, officials said.

Chinari SHO Raja Yasir Ali told Dawn on Friday that a bloated body was discovered along the riverbank on Thursday evening. Initially unidentified, it was later confirmed — through local journalist Ajaz Ahmed Meer, who has connections across the Line of Control — to be that of 22-year-old Yasir Hussain, son of Moze Ali Shah, a resident of Dhani Busgran in Uri tehsil, district Baramulla.

A day earlier, Rescue 1122 workers in Muzaffarabad had retrieved the body of a woman floating near the left bank of the Jhelum River in Lower Chattar, within the jurisdiction of the Civil Secretariat Police Station.

The swollen body was sent to the mortuary at CMH Muzaffarabad.

As news of the recoveries spread on social media, the woman was identified as 20-year-old Asiya Bano, daughter of Mohabit Khan, from Kundi Barjala village in Uri. Reports from across the divide suggested that the pair had jumped into the river on March 5 in the Uri-Baramulla area after their families objected to their marriage plans.

SHO Ali said the young man’s body had been washed and placed in a coffin. “We have been informed by the authorities that his body will be handed over on Saturday through Kaman Bridge,” he added, referring to the designated crossing point.

He also mentioned that a man claiming to be the girl’s uncle had requested that her body be repatriated alongside the young man’s.

SHO Civil Secretariat Muzaffarabad, Raja Sohail, confirmed that since the girl’s identity had been established slightly later, the official process for her repatriation had also been initiated with some delay.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2025