Amid scenes of grief and sorrow, thousands of mourners on Friday attended the last rites of four-year-old Mohammad Hanzala of Tiken village in Pulwama, whose body was retrieved from the Ranbiara stream in Hirpora after an extensive five-day search operation.
Hanzala had gone missing on April 27 after accidentally slipping into the fast-flowing stream near Dubjan Bridge in south Kashmirβs Shopian district. His body was finally recovered from a downstream location in the Ranbiara nallah on Friday morning.
Army personnel, Jammu and Kashmir Police, SDRF teams and local volunteers had carried out a massive search operation over the past several days. Specialised equipment and expert civilian body retrievers were also pressed into service during the rescue efforts.
