Thousands of mourners Saturday participated in the last rites of two militants killed during a gunfight with the government forces on Friday in south Kashmir’s Shopian district.
Showkat Ahmad Sheikh, a special police officer-turnedmilitant and his associate Yasir Ahmad Shah, residents of Herman and Arhamavillages of the district respectively were killed in a nearly 12-hour long gunbattle in Gadapora village.
The bodies of the slain militants were handed over to theirkin late on Friday evening.
According to local residents, since last evening, thousandsof mourners made a beeline for the native villages of the slain militants toparticipate in their last rites.
After multiple back to back funeral prayers, the militantsamid pro-Islam and pro-freedom slogans were interred at their respectiveancestral graveyards.Local residents told Greater Kashmir that agroup of militants appeared during the funeral prayers of both the slainmilitants and offered them gun salutes.