Kargil memories fade as friendship flowers

SRINAGAR: Once, the battleground for one of the bloodiest battles ever fought in recent times, Kargil is now emerging a symbol of peace and camaraderie between India and Pakistan.

A few days ago, the Pakistani army went out of its way to fish out the body of a teacher from the river Suru and hand it over to the Indian army across the Line of Control (LoC).

Muzeeb of Dehradun was working as teacher in Drass’ Army Goodwill School and had gone missing a few days ago. Meanwhile, an unidentified body spotted floating on river Suru that had entered Pakistani territory.

“The civilian’s body was handed over to our troops across the LoC by the Pakistani soldiers. Later, we handed over the body to the civilian administration,” said Lieutenant Colonel AK Mathur, defence spokesman.

Garib Das, senior superintendent of police, Kargil, said the river Suru flows into the northern areas of Pakistan occupied Kashmir and the body had entered that section.

After preliminarily investigations, Das said the man was identified as Muzeeb who had gone missing from Drass, a town in the district of Kargil.

“We suspect that it is case of homicide. An autopsy of the body has been conducted and hopefully, we will arrive at a conclusion soon,” he said.

It is for the second time in the past one year that Pakistani army has fished out bodies that entered their side of the river. In July last year, the Pakistani army retrieved the body of a person killed in an accident.

“There was a road accident when a vehicle carrying the area councilor and five others of Kargil skidded and toppled into the river. Five people had died but we were able to retrieve only four bodies. One body had entered Pakistani territory. It was the army there which fished out the body and handed it over to us with utmost respect,” Das explained.