PALAKKAD: Ahead of the night of Operation Sindoor, family members of Muhammed Shanib, a native of Kanjirapuzha in Kerala's Palakkad district, ended up receiving the news they were all dreading.
They told The New Indian Express that a senior officer from the Gulmarg police station informed them on Tuesday, around 7.30 am, that Shanib had been found dead in tragic circumstances in Kashmir.
The officer told them that his team had retrieved Shanib's body, which bore signs of having been mauled by wild animals, from a terror-prone forest area.
When contacted by The New Indian Express, Gulmarg police station sources said Shanib's body had been recovered on Tuesday morning.
"It is not clear how he went off track to the deep woods. He had been attacked by beers. We contacted the family in Kerala and have asked them to come here for body identification," said a senior officer.
26-year-old Shanib was the son of Karuvanthodi Veettil Abdul Samad and wife Haseena residing in the ninth ward of the Kanhirapuzha grama panchayat and had gone incommunicado for a few weeks.
"Shanib had been working in Bengaluru as an accountant at a private company and he came home on April 5. He went back to Bengaluru again on the night of April 13 by train. Since then, he hadn't been in touch with us. He didn't answer any calls from relatives and would only text back saying he was busy with work. We are shocked to know that he reached Kashmir, because he did not know anyone there," said Abdul Salam, elder brother of Shanib's mother, .
Other relatives and the president of Kanhirapuzha grama panchayat Sathi Ramarajan said Shanib had shown signs of mental health concerns in the past after a failed attempt to clear the medicine entrance examination.
"After a few years, he started taking up electrical work in the village and it was only three months ago that he went to Bengaluru. His sister is residing in Bengaluru and he used to keep touch with family members until the recent past," said a relative.
Kashmir cops stumped too
Salam said that "even the Kashmir police were clueless about how Shanib ventured into the woods".
"During the interaction with us, they told us that the body was recovered by the Indian Army from an area terrorists attack frequently. Shanib's body is at least 10 days old. It has been kept at a military hospital," said Salam.
Relatives told the The New Indian Express that Shanib's phone records had been checked by the cyber cell of the Indian Army.
"The Kashmir police told us that Shanib's mobile phone was last used in Delhi. Since then, he has not received or made any calls or sent SMSes. They also told us that a mentally stable man would never venture into the woods as it is a highly sensitive area along the India-Pakistan border," Salam added.
The family has reached out to the office of the Chief Minister of Kerala through Kongad MLA K Shanthakumari, seeking assistance to bring back Shanib's body.
