Days after bodies of three men were found in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir, two teenagers — Deenu (15) and his nephew Rehmat Ali (12) — have gone missing from Rajbagh area of the district, police said on Monday.

The duo was last seen in Rajbagh where they had gone to graze their cattle, they said.

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Their disappearance comes just days after the bodies of three local residents were found at a waterfall by security forces, two days after they went missing.
Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh had confirmed that the three, including a minor boy, were killed by terrorists.

Authorities have now launched a search operation to find the two missing teens.
Despite extensive search by their families in the nearby areas, including Billawar, Basohli and Punjab, there has been no trace of them.

Their sudden disappearance has left their families in deep distress, especially given the tense atmosphere prevailing in the district over the past few months.

Police have registered an FIR and an investigation has been launched to trace these two missing boys.

The Kathua district has in the past few days witnessed a string of mysterious disappearances of locals causing tension in the area.

Two men went missing last month after they left their home to collect firewood. Their bodies were found a day later outside the village.

Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan held a high level meeting to formulate a strategy to counter terrorism in the high reaches of the Kathua district on Sunday.
Residents of the Bani-Billawar areas of the district have become restive following these killings. They heckled a DIG of police and the local MLA to mark their annoyance. A shutdown was being observed in the area.

The mysterious disappearances have also caused noisy scenes in the ongoing Assembly session.

Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha has ordered an enquiry into the matter.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah recently said in the Assembly that terrorism has reappeared in those areas of Jammu that were long back declared free of terror activities.

It is worth mentioning that the police have questioned more than 30 people who were suspected to have provided shelter to Pakistani terrorists who have infiltrated into the Kathua district and were operating at the upper reaches.