A body was recovered by the police from an orchard in South Kashmir's Shopian district that has been identified as that of a missing panchayat member Nisar Ahmad Bhat.

The body buried in the orchard was spotted by the locals who informed the police.

A senior police official confirmed that the body recovered is of missing Panch Nisar Ahmad Bhat.

Bhat reportedly left for Shopian from Srinagar on August 19 and has been missing since.

An unverified audiotape released by terrorists later claimed that the abducted panch had been killed..