Bodies of 2 Jammu village guards killed by terrorists found

Nazir Ahmad and Kuldeep Kumar were abducted on Thursday when they were grazing their cattle

- Ravi Krishnan Khajuria

JAMMU: Security forces on Friday recovered the bodies of two village defence guards (VDG) a day after they were abducted and shot dead by terrorists in the Kishtwar district of Jammu amid protests, shutdown, and outrage over the killings.

On Thursday morning, 45-year-old Nazir Ahmad and 33-year-old Kuldeep Kumar, both residents of Ohli-Kuntwara village, took their cattle for grazing in the Munzla Dhar forest. They did not return till late evening, prompting a joint search operation by the army, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and police.

Amid the frantic search, Kashmir Tigers, an offshoot of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), said that it had abducted and killed the two men.

"Some ignorant people are joining the VDGs... They should learn from today's incident and not be a part of VDGs. Otherwise, they will also meet the same fate," the terror group said in a letter, as it also shared a photo of the bodies of the two blindfolded men.