Ganderbal (Jammu and Kashmir), Feb.2 (ANI): Police in Ganderbal had to fire teargas shells to disperse protesters at a graveyard from where two bodies were exhumed on Friday as part of an investigation into police shootings, witnesses said.

Two policemen were arrested last weekend and two officers transferred over accusations that they had staged a gunbattle and killed Abdul Rehman Padder, a carpenter, who the police claimed was a militant.

An inquiry was lodged after a public outcry, which also forced the police to probe four similar killings.

We have around five reports. Cases in two have been registered and we are investigating them. Enquiry in others is being made. Once we reach some conclusion we will register those cases and investigate them also. We have arrested only four persons, including two police officers and more are under questioning. We expect to make more arrests, said Farooq Ahmad, Deputy Inspector General, Jammu and Kashmir Police (Central Range).

Protests erupted in Ganderbal, near Srinagar, where one Nazir Ahmed Deka was buried in February 16, 2006. Deka was killed in a fake encounter. Police had claimed that he was an Islamic militant and that weapons had been recovered from him.

His body was exhumed on Thursday as part of the investigation into his death.

Yesterday we had exhumed one body. Today we are here for another. It appears to be a skeletonised body. Mere skeletal remains are there unlike yesterday when it was a little bit complete body; it was not decomposed. This is a year-old body. We will be collecting the bone samples which will be taken... We will collect the samples and take it for chemical analysis to our Chandigarh lab, said Ranjeev, a forensic expert who supervised the exhumation.

About 2,000 people gathered near the town's graveyard after police and forensic experts started removing bodies of two other people, also believed to have been killed in staged clashes.

Angry protesters pelted police with stones, shouting Stop fake encounters ... Down with police. Police fired teargas shells to disperse them, witnesses said. No one was injured.

A senior police officer told national TV last week that two men involved in the Padder incident had been paid for the killings, under a programme that rewards security personnel who capture or kill militants.

State Chief MInister Ghulam Nabi Azad had earlier said that those held guilty in fake encounter cases would be punished as murderers. (ANI)