Jammu and Kashmir police on Thursday handed over to his family the body of a youth who was alleged to have gone missing after he was picked up by the army in December, fuelling allegations that he was killed in custody.

The army had taken Abdul Rasheed Dar, an auto driver in his 20s, from his home in Kunan Poshpora village of Kupwara district on December 15 in the presence of village elders. The next day, the army said he had escaped from their custody.

The family and locals held multiple protests demanding information about his whereabouts. The army denied allegations that Rasheed had been killed.

Anantnag MP Hasnain Masoodi had taken up the issue with defence minister Rajnath Singh in December.

“Who else? It is the army who has killed him,” village sarpanch Khursheed Ahmad told The Telegraph over phone on Wednesday. “A massive crowd has turned up to join his funeral. People are raising slogans for justice.”

Block Development Council chairman Trehgam Mohammad Abdullah Mir also said the latest development proved the family’s allegation that Rasheed was killed by the army.

Talking to this newspaper in December, Mir had backed the army’s claim that Rasheed had escaped from their custody. Mir had said the army suspected that he had joined militant ranks. “I am surprised by today’s development. There should be a probe to fix the blame. We got a call from the police to identify a body. We do not know how they found him,” he said.

Kupwara district commissioner Doifode Sagar Dattatray said the body was handed over to the family after a post-mortem. “That is all I have to say,” he said.

A police spokesman said a body was found in the Zurhama-PK Gali forests. “The dead body was brought to SDH (Sub-District Hospital) Kupwara where it was identified by the relatives of the missing person (Rasheed). After completing all formalities, including post-mortem, the body was handed over to the family members for burial. Cognisance of the matter has been taken for further investigation,” he said.

An army officer in Srinagar said he was aware of the development and was checking with his seniors about a formal response.

The village sarpanch said they received a call from the police in the morning asking them to identify a body that was found in Zurhama village.

“The family identified him (as their son). It has taken us hours to bring his body home as a large crowd accompanied us,” he said.

In December, Kupwara senior superintendent of police Youghal Manhas had said Rasheed was picked up by the army for a “terrorism-related incident” but had “slipped out” while accompanying the soldiers during a raid at a hideout. The locals had denied Rasheed had links with militants.

Rasheed was the lone care-giver of his ailing father Mohammad Sidiq Dar who is bedridden and suffers from dementia.

Kunan Poshpora is the village where young and old women and girls were allegedly gang-raped by soldiers on the night of February 23, 1991. The army denies the allegation of mass gang rape. Petitions in the case have been filed in the high court and the Supreme Court.