Srinagar, Mar 10 (UNI) The Jammu and Kashmir police exhumed a body here today for conducting a DNA test to ascertain whether it belonged to police constable Neelofar who went missing under mysterious circumstances last year.

Meanwhile, members of Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) today staged a sit-in at Partap Park near here in protest against the failure of authorities to provide any information about their family members, who disappeared from the valley.

After successful operation against the police officials involved in the fake encounter killings in Ganderbal area, state police have started investigations into the mysterious death of the woman constable.

The body of Neelofar was fished out from the Dal Lake on February 2 last year.

''We have already taken samples of the mother of Neelofar for DNA tests,'' Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Syed Mujtaba said, adding that we want to match the DNA of the exhumed body with the Neelofar's mother.

However, he said, it was a normal investigation.

''If the DNA does not match with Neelofar's mother it will be then matched with the relatives of other people who went missing in the valley,'' the SSP said.

Neelofar, a resident of Zaldagar, was posted in the cantonment area. However, one day she disappeared and her body was fished out of the Dal lake and buried at Dalgate graveyard last year.

Encouraged after the arrest of four police officials, including Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Hans Raj Parihar and Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP-Operations) Ganderbal Bahadur Ram, for allegedly killing some innocents in fake encounter in Ganderbal area, police decided to investigate other fake encounter allegations.

UNI