The Shopian district police on Friday put up posters across the township in Kashmir with a photograph of three Hizbul Mujahideen militants who are suspected to have killed Army officer Ummer Fayaz. The police identified them as Ishfaq Ahmad Thoker and Gayas-ul-Islam from Padderpora village, and Abass Ahmad Bhat from Mantribugh. The police have also offered a reward for anyone who can provide information about the trio, reported PTI.

In the poster, the three men are seen holding guns, according to The Indian Express. Beneath it, there is text that reads, “The above criminals who are involved in many terrorist acts including the murder of Umar Fayaz Parray s/o Fayaz Ahmad Parray R/o Sarsona Kulgam…. Any person providing information regarding the above criminals will be suitably rewarded and his identity will be kept secret.”

This comes a day after defence officials said they had identified the six Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Taiba militants who had abducted and killed Fayaz in Jammu and Kashmir’s Shopian district on May 9. His body was found with three bullet injuries and signs of struggle.

Earlier, the state police had suspected that the Indian Small Arms System or INSAS rifle that had been snatched from officers in South Kashmir had been used to murder the 22-year-old lieutenant-rank soldier. They had based their suspicion on the two empty INSAS rifle cartridges they had found near the spot where Fayaz’s body was found.

Fayaz was on his first break since joining the Army’s 2 Rajputana Rifles unit when he was killed. He was part of the 129th batch of cadets from the National Defence Academy in Pune. He was kidnapped while attending a relative’s wedding and shot dead the same night.