Two families claim kinship to slain mentally deranged youth

The youth was killed in Surankote area of Poonch district Sunday in a 12-hour gunbattle. He was touted to be a top Lashkar-e-Taiba militant.

Issaq Mohammad and Mohammad Din from Rajouri district have separately claimed with the police that the youth was their family member, Senior Superintendent of Police (Poonch), Ashkoor Wani, told IANS on phone.

"We are verifying their claims through DNA tests," he said.Earlier, the youth was believed to be a Hindu but his religion was verified Friday as Muslim and he was subsequently buried, a senior intelligence officer told IANS.

The rush for claiming kinship to the youth was believed to be motivated by the compensation money that is to be paid to the next of kin. This generally amounts to Rs.1 lakh in addition to a government job, police sources said.

A soldier of the Territorial Army and a policeman allegedly responsible for the killing of the civilian were arrested Aug 8.