The body of the missing 19-year-old Ronak Hassan of Bandipora that was recovered from Wular Lake after 28 days on Saturday evening was laid to rest at the family’s graveyard.
Saturday night, the teen’s body was spotted floating in the Wular waters near Warpora village of Sopore, in the adjacent Baramulla district many kilometres from Bandipora town, officials said. When his body was brought home, his shattered mother Saleema said, “I had been dying in endless wait to see your face and when you arrived, I can’t recognise your face anymore.”
Ronak, son of Ghulam Hassan Bhat of Ward No 3 in Plan locality of Bandipora had left home on March 29 and was missing ever since. His two elder brothers and father, a mason by profession, had been frantically looking for his whereabouts. Ronak’s friend Ubair Ahmad said, “He was a brilliant student and had been one of the toppers in the last year’s 12th standard exams in the district. He had even done exceptionally well in the NEET exam but had fallen short of qualifying the exam by a few marks.”
After Police recovered the body, the family recognised it only because of the clothes he was wearing on the day he went missing, an official told Greater Kashmir. Many people offered the Namaz-e-Jinazah of the teenager at Gousia Masjid Park after which his body was laid to rest.