Srinagar: Villagers in Awantipora area of Pulwama district in south Kashmir on Monday made a floating bridge out of dozens of boats to pay a solidarity visit to the family of a slain militant.

Srinagar: Villagers in Awantipora area of Pulwama district in south Kashmir on Monday made a floating bridge out of dozens of boats to pay a solidarity visit to the family of a slain militant. The boats were placed in a queue from one end to another of the Jhelum river in Aghanzipora - ancestral village of slain Lashkar militant Irshad Ahmad - to help the people, especially women, visit the family of the slain militant.

"In the absence of a bridge, the villagers decided to make the bridge out of twenty-five boats," said a villager. He said that hundreds of people, especially women, from several villages of Awantipora used the bridge on two Eid days to visit the family of Ahmad. Irshad Ahmad was killed in an encounter along with two associates in an encounter with government forces in Kakapora area of Pulwama district.