The Indian army, which initially said the dead were Pakistani ‘terrorists’, said it is investigating the incident.
The family of three missing Kashmiris have alleged the trio was killed in a staged operation by the Indian army, bringing back memories of past cases of extrajudicial killings in the Muslim-majority region.
The Kashmiri family said they had identified the three from photos posted on social media after the July 18 operation in southern Shopian district.
“They had not even a remote connection with militancy,” Mohammed Yousuf, the father of one the men, told Associated Press on Tuesday.
He said his son last spoke to his wife on July 17 and from the next day the mobile phones of all three cousins were switched off.
The Indian army initially said the victims were “Pakistani terrorists”. More than 100 Kashmiri rebels have been killed in a military offensive launched in January.❐
