With the Special Investigation Team probing fake encounter killings in the Valley today exhuming three more bodies from graveyards, the Jammu and Kashmir Police today arrested former Ganderbal Senior Superintendent of Police Hans Raj Parihar and DySP Bahadur Ram for the disappearance of Abdul Rehman Padroo.

With the arrest of these two senior officers, the total number of policemen held in the case has gone up to four. ASI Farooq Ahmed of Ganderbal police and Farooq Ahmed Padder posted in District Police Lines, Srinagar, are already under arrest.

The relatives present at the exhumation sites recognised the bodies as that of their lost ones. One among them is believed to be Ghulab Nabi Wani of Kokernag, who was killed on March 14, 2006. Wani was reportedly killed in a fake encounter by Ganderbal police and 13 RR. After he was picked up, they shot him dead and branded him a foreign militant. His wife was present at the exhumation site today and helped identify his body.

A kilometre away the police investigators and forensic team exhumed what is believed to be the body of Showkat Ahmed Khan, a resident of Dolipora Banihal. The former Imam may have been killed on October 5, 2006. Khan was identified by his father Noor Alam, who was present there. Ganderbal police and 13 RR are suspected to have had a hand in his killing as well. Khan had gone missing from Zadibal in downtown Srinagar during the night of October 4-5 last year.

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