The victims included cement trader and father of three Altaf Ahmad Bhat, a property dealer, a tea stall owner and a civilian. According to the Kashmir Media Service, their bodies were abducted and buried at an unknown place without the permission of their families.

A video of Bhat’s daughter is circulating on social media where she recounts the moment her family found out about her father’s death.

“We were waiting for him to get home at seven but he got very late,” she said. “We got extremely worried and kept calling him, for some reason I was crying I don’t know why.”

“Finally at ten my uncle called us and he was crying, I could hear shouting on the call. I ran and started praying,” she said.

“How should I explain it to my brother. He’s much younger than me. He doesn’t know anything. He is so attached to his father and so am I,” said Bhat’s daughter in the video.

Inspector General of Police Kashmir Vijay Kumar told media that Bhat owned the building in which a foreign terrorist named Haidar, his local terrorist associate Aamir Ahmad and OGW named Mudasir Gul were residing. Hence, Bhat was counted as a “harbourer” of terrorists.

Several of Bhat’s family members say that he was innocent and a common man.

“Our father was not a militant, he was innocent. Why was he killed? Please give us his body,” said Bhat’s second daughter in a video.

Altaf Bhat’s niece Saima Bhat also took to Twitter to demand back her uncle’s body.

According to the Foreign Office at least 25 Kashmiris have been killed by Indian forces in “fake and so-called” cordon and search operations since October 1st, 2021.