Clarification. Media reports of the abduction of a serving Army soldier on leave from Qazipora, Chadoora, Budgam ar… https://t.co/tvTMguaUqO — Defence Spokesperson (@SpokespersonMoD) 1552097592000

SRINAGAR: The defence ministry on Saturday refuted reports of abduction of a serving Army soldier.On Friday evening, reports had indicated that a 27-year-old soldier has been abducted by four unidentified gunmen from his home in J&K’s Budgam district .The jawan was identified as Mohammad Yasin of the Jammu & Kashmir Light Infantry. His present posting is with JAKLi brigade in Dehradun .He was on leave, from February 26 till March 31, and was inside his house at Qazipora village in Chadoora area of central Kashmir, 30km from here, when the gunmen struck, it was reported earlier.The news of Yasin’s "abduction" sent police into an intensive search operation and an increased surveillance on the national highway. According to sources, some of the eyewitnesses said that the gunmen arrived in a car with a licence number registered in Poonch.Yasin’s "kidnapping" is a throwback on the abductions of Lt Umer Fayyaz in 2017 and sepoy Aurangzeb in 2018, both of whom were murdered while they were on leave. While 22-year-old Umer of Kulgam was kidnapped from Shopian, 25-year-old Aurangzeb of Poonch was abducted from Pulwama . Incidentally, Aurangzeb was also from JAKLi.In another incident, an AK-47 rifle of DC Kishtwar’s PSO Daleep Kumar was snatched in a crowded Shaheedi Mazar area of Kishtwar town by unknown masked men. The snatching took place when the PSO had gone on to run some personal errand in the market, sources said.