Colleagues killed my daughter: Cop's mother

In the midst of an inquiry into fake encounters, the mother of a policewoman has alleged that she was killed by her colleagues and has demanded exhumation of a body buried in Srinagar in April last year.

"Her colleagues have killed her," Shamima, the mother of constable Nelofar who went missing on duty on February 28, 2006, alleged after she was called by a police team to give a blood sample for DNA profiling.

She also accused the police top brass of scuttling the probe into the case and said she had approached the Jammu and Kashmir State Human Rights Commission.

Shamina said a highly-decomposed body of a woman was found in Chuunt Kul at Dalgate on April 3 last year and police claimed it was that of Nelofar.

"We were shown the photograph of the body and could recognise Nelofar from her forehead, hair and nose, but the face was completely mutilated," Shamina said.

The body was later buried at the nearby Mala Teng graveyard. She has demanded a complete probe into the case after exhumation of the body.

"We don't want any compensation. We do not need money, but I want the murderers of my daughter to be hanged,' she said.

She also claimed that Nelofar had expressed apprehensions about coming to harm after an altercation with a lady 'close to the security agencies' and went missing few days later.

Shamina along with Nelofar's husband Tariq Ahmad Khan searched frantically for the police constable and lodged a missing report at Bemina police post near their house.

She said the police investigated the case, questioned friends, colleagues and neighbours of Nelofar, but could not get a clue on her.

She further alleged the police brought 'a lady from outside the state to identify my daughter, but did not show the body to her relatives.' A police guard has been placed at the purported grave of Nelofar but officials said there was no connection between the alleged killing of civilians in police encounters and the death of the constable.

The body has not been exhumed yet. "This is a separate case. It was the demand of relatives that a DNA test be carried out on the body to establish with certainty that the deceased was in fact Nelofar," Deputy Inspector General of Police Farooq Ahmad, who is supervising the Special Investigation Team probe into the alleged encounter killings, said.