Family members of a PhD scholar, who went missing on June 14 during a tracking expedition to Gangbal in Ganderbal, protested in this summer capital on Wednesday and rejected the claims by the police that the youth had joined Hizbul Mujahideen (HM).
The protest comes a day after Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kashmir, Vijay Kumar on Tuesday said that the Srinagar PhD scholar, identified as Hilal Ahmad Dar, has joined HM.
The family members and relatives of Dar, a PhD scholar of Kashmir University (KU), assembled at Press Colony in Srinagar and once again sought help from the administration to trace the PhD scholar.
Questioning the police claims, Nisar said if Dar has joined militancy why is police still searching for him in the forest area in Gangbal.
Dar, alongwith four others, had gone for trekking to Naranag-Gangabal Lake in Ganderbal district on June 14. However, four youths returned back after trekking to Gangabal while Hilal went missing.
The trekkers had said that Dar was sent back after he could not climb a difficult trek to Butsheri and Budpatheri. Dar was asked to go home when he expressed his inability to climb the hilly trek, they said, adding all the four later trekked and reached Gangbal. However, after staying at Gangbal, they returned back to Srinagar, the trekkers said.
The trekkers, who had returned, said as there was no mobile network after Naranag, they could not remain in contact with Dar.
A massive search operation was launched in the hilly trek and dense forest to track Dar. A ten-member mountaineering group besides army and police had also joined the search operation.