Army jawan abducted by 4 gunmen from his Jammu and Kashmir home

SRINAGAR: A 27-year-old Army jawan was abducted by four unidentified gunmen from his home in J&K’s Budgam district late on Friday, further ratcheting up tension in a state on the edge following February 14’s Pulwama terror strike that killed 40 CRPF men and Thursday’s grenade attack in Jammu that claimed 2 lives.

The abducted jawan was identified as Mohammad Yasin of the Jammu & Kashmir Light Infantry. He was on leave, from February 26 till March 31, and was inside his house at Qazipora village in Chadoora area of central Kashmir, 30km from here, when the gunmen struck.

Yasin’s abduction sent police into an intensive search operation and an increased surveillance on the national highway.

According to sources, some of the eyewitnesses said that the gunmen arrived in a car with a licence number registered in Poonch.

His present posting is with JAKLi brigade in Dehradun . His abduction happened barely hours before the passing out parade of JAKLi unit, which was to be reviewed by general officer in command of Chinar Corps Lt Gen KJS Dhillon.

Sources in the Army said they have launched an internal investigation into who Yasin was in touch with over the last 72 hours.

Yasin’s kidnapping is a throwback on the abductions of Lt Umer Fayyaz in 2017 and sepoy Aurangzeb in 2018, both of whom were murdered while they were on leave. While 22-year-old Umer of Kulgam was kidnapped from Shopian, 25-year-old Aurangzeb of Poonch was abducted from Pulwama. Incidentally, Aurangzeb was also from JAKLi.

AK47 weapon of DC Kishtwar’s PSO Daleep Kumar was snatched in a crowded Shaheedi Mazar area of Kishtwar town by unknown masked men. The snatching took place when the PSO had gone on to run some personal errand in the market, sources said.