JAMMU: Days after the bodies of three missing members of a family from Jammu’s Kathua were found near a waterfall after an extensive search, police reported Tuesday the unsolved disappearance of two cousins, 15 and 12, from the same district after they stepped out of their village on Feb 27 to graze cattle.
Fears about the safety of the goatherd duo, identified as Deen and Rehmat Ali of Bhamberwan, intensified after DIG (Jammu-Samba-Kathua) Shiv Kumar Sharma met their families and instructed police and security forces to expand the search to other J&K districts.
Reports about the boys going missing came two days after Union minister Jitendra Singh said Kathua residents Darshan Singh, 40, Yogesh Singh, 32, and Varun Singh, 15, were killed by terrorists as part of a “deep conspiracy” to stoke turmoil in the district.
The trio went missing on March 5 en route to a wedding in Lohai Malhar. Their bodies were found on March 8 in Ishu Nallah during a search involving police, the Army, drones and sniffer dogs.
In Rajbagh, DIG Sharma asked senior security officials, including the deputy SP (border) of Kathua, to liaise with their counterparts in other districts for any information that could help search teams trace the missing goatherds.
“We are contacting relatives of the two families in Udhampur and Punjab. Pictures of the duo have been circulated, too,” an officer said.
Residents of Karanwada and Mahanpur protested Tuesday against the “terrorist killings” last week and demanded village defence guards armed with automatic rifles to keep their areas safe. The protesters, mostly youths, also sought prompt issuance and renewal of gun licences for personal protection. Scores of licence renewals are pending due to a CBI probe into a 2016 scam.
Cases of young people going missing and being found dead have been common in villages along the international border in Jammu division for months. On June 28 last year, the body of a missing Class 9 student was found in the Anas river.
Another missing youth was found dead in Rajouri on Dec 19, 2023. On Aug 23 the same year, a missing 25-year-old man from Samot village in Rajouri district was found dead near Kotranka Jama Masjid. It was the third such instance in 2023 after police found the body of a missing teenager under Bela bridge in Rajouri town.