Mouth stuffed with stones, buried alive: The horrific murder of a J&K cop

Bashir Ahmed, 55, a Special Police Officer (SPO) in Jammu and Kashmir, set out from his house in Trigam village, in the militancy-prone Kishtwar district, carrying his rifle. He was headed to his post in the forests, barely 800 metres from his home.

It was a 12-hour night shift, and he usually returned home between 6 am and 6.30 am the next day. But on October 15, Bashir did not return. His wife Parveena, 50, and daughter Dilshada, 15, grew anxious. By 8.30 am, with no sign of him, they knocked on the door of his cousin, Ghulam Rasool, who lived nearby.

The family rushed to Bashir’s post, only to learn that he had left for home at his usual time. For the next 24 hours, there was no answer. First, the Police investigators suspected that militants may have abducted him. The breakthrough, however, came the following day.

Tracing signals from his mobile phone, police found Bashir — he was buried in a pit. And this was no case of kidnapping. He had been murdered, allegedly over a land dispute by his cousin, Bashir Ahmad Dar, and his son, Nazir Ahmed Dar.

Police said both men have been arrested. The police also uncovered another chilling detail. SPO Bashir had suffered a horrific death. He was buried alive. “He didn’t die because of the injury caused by the hit on his head.

He was buried alive,’’ a police officer investigating the case said. “This was shocking. He must have spent those last moments of his life in unbearable agony”. Recalling that day, Ghulam Rasool said, “We went to his post, only to be told by the policemen there that Bashir had left for home around 6.30 am.” Pointing out that the post was barely a 15-minute walk from his home, he said the lack of any information about Bashir’s whereabouts had left the family worried.

“As the path to the post passed through forests, we started looking for him in the jungle fearing he may have been attacked by a wild animal.” They finally went to the Kishtwar Police Station. Police parties, joined by security forces, immediately fanned out in the area to look for the missing SPO.

“As the deceased had disappeared along with his service weapon, we initially suspected it was a case of abduction by militants,” said Kishtwar Police Station SHO, Firdous Ahmed. He added that the search parties returned to the police station empty-handed on the night of October 15.

Meanwhile, the SPO’s family told police that his mobile phone was also missing, the SHO said. “We put the number on the tracking device and found that his phone was being switched on and off at frequent intervals,” he said.

SHO Firdous Ahmed said militants would never have taken the SPO’s mobile phone with them for fear of being tracked by security agencies. “This is why we changed focus,’’ he said. “We decided to thoroughly search the area between his house and the post once again”.

On the morning of October 16, police first found the SPO’s mobile phone lying in the bushes. Then they found his rifle near a nullah, the SHO said. A few metres away, they noticed freshly dug soil. On digging the spot, they found the SPO’s body buried underneath.

During preliminary investigations, police found that the SPO had earlier been involved in a land dispute with one of his cousins, Bashir Ahmed Dar. But the two had later reached a compromise.