Army’s Kashmiri soldier missing during Eid holiday, abduction suspected | India News – Times of India
Wani, who is posted in Ladakh, had been on leave at his home since June 29 to celebrate Eid ul Azha or Bakra Eid with his family. His plan was to fly back to Leh on Sunday and resume duty on Monday.
He disappeared after he went around 7.30pm to neighbouring Chawalgam village in an Alto car to buy groceries and mutton. According to his family members, he had requested his mother to prepare some dishes for him to take back to his base in Ladakh.
Around 8pm, he informed the family over the phone that he would return home within five or ten minutes. However, he did not come back until 8.30pm when neighbours informed the family that his car was abandoned near an orchard in Paranhall village.
“The car was unlocked, and we saw mutton, bananas, and a pair of slippers inside the car. There were some bloodstains in the vehicle as well,” the soldier’s father Muhammad Ayoub Wani said Sunday.
The family suspects that he may have been abducted by terrorists and has appealed for his safe return. In a video message circulating on social media, Wani’s mother made an emotional appeal to his suspected abductors. “Kindly let him go. He is innocent and young. If he has done anything wrong, I seek forgiveness,” she said.
Scores of relatives, neighbours, and residents from nearby areas were seen at Wani’s home on Sunday, pleading for his safe return. The security forces have launched an extensive search for the soldier.
Cases of terrorists abducting off-duty soldiers and policemen have occurred in southern and central Kashmir in the past. In March 2022, Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists abducted and killed soldier Sameer Ahmad Malla from J&K Light Infantry, whose body was found in an orchard in Budgam. In 2021, the decomposed body of a soldier from the Territorial Army, Shakir Manzoor Wagay of Shopian, was found in the Kulgam area in September, over a year after his abduction.
On May 11, 2017, Lieutenant Ummer Fayaz, a young officer who had recently been commissioned in the Army from Kulgam’s Sudana village, was on leave to attend a family wedding when he was abducted from the ceremony in Shopian. The 22-year-old was shot dead by four terrorists.
The year 2018 saw several members of the security forces in J&K being abducted and killed by terrorists. Rifleman Aurangzeb of the 44 Rashtriya Rifles, who was from Poonch, was abducted by terrorists in Pulwama district on June 15 and his bullet-riddled body was found later. He was on leave and on his way home when he was abducted.
On July 21 that year, constable Saleem Shah from Kulgam, who had recently joined the police and was undergoing training in Kathua of Jammu, was abducted from his home and subsequently killed. He was on holiday.
Three policemen, identified as Kulwant Singh, Nisar Ahmad, and Firdous Ahmad, were abducted from two villages in south Kashmir’s Shopian district on the night of September 20. Their bodies were discovered the next morning in an orchard in the area.
