Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday said the Ganderbal encounter “needs a transparent and time-bound probe with the facts made public”.The statement by Omar came after a family in the Valley claimed that the deceased in the encounter was their kin and he had “no link with militancy”.Also read: Ganderbal encounter: Area resident claims slain person his brother, not a militant; family demands probeThe Army had said that a “militant” was killed in an encounter in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal.Reacting to The Tribune report, Omar said “he believes the claim of the family should not be dismissed out of hand”.“At the very least, this encounter needs a transparent & time-bound probe with the facts made public. Any attempt to obfuscate or delay the announcement of a probe will only damage credibility and that is not in anyone’s interest,” Omar wrote on X.I believe the claim of the family should not be dismissed out of hand. At the very least this encounter needs a transparent & time bound probe with the facts made public. Any attempt to obfuscate or delay the announcement of a probe will only damage credibility & that is not in… https://t.co/u8Pg7O39hn— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) April 2, 2026Ajaz Ahmad, brother of Rashid Ahmad Mughal, from the Chountwaliwar area of Ganderbal, told The Tribune that his brother had left home on Tuesday morning but didn’t return.Ajaz further stated that his brother had no link with militancy. “We are shocked to hear this. He was totally innocent and he has been killed,” he said, adding that the clothes his brother was wearing when he left home are not the same he saw on Wednesday.