A soldier from Jammu and Kashmir is suspected to have joined the Hizbul Mujahideen, the Hindustan Times reported on Monday. A photograph of Idrees Sultan Mir wielding an assault rifle has surfaced on social media. “Details are being ascertained,” Defence spokesperson Colonel Rajesh Kalia told the daily.

Mir, who was posted in the Army’s Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry unit, reportedly joined the militant group on Sunday, PTI quoted unidentified police officers as saying. He went missing from Shopian – he is a resident of Wachi – and joined the group along with two locals.

This comes days after a trader from Assam, who had been missing since July 2017, took to social media to announce he had joined the militant group. In July 2017, Zahoor Ahmad Thokar, a soldier with the 173 Battalion of the Territorial Army, deserted his post and had reportedly joined the Hizbul Mujahideen.