Cold blooded murder of 3 civilians for Rs 6 Lakh

Machhil fake encounter snowballing into a storm for Omar Abdullah Govt

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, May 27: Government agencies have found that a 4-Rajput unit of regular Army has committed cold-blooded murder of three civilians of Baramulla district near Sonapindi in Machhil sector of Kupwara district for claiming reward money of Rs 6 Lakhs during the night intervening April 29th and 30th this year. Much like the infamous fake encounters of yesteryears, these gruesome killings have been put in the account of an “encounter” and all the three slain civilians have been labeled as “infiltrating militants” before their burial at a graveyard at Kalaroos in Kupwara district.

According to highly placed authoritative sources, a gruesome replay of Pathribal and Ganderbal fake encounters has occurred at Sonapindi, close to LoC in Machhil sector, where a unit of 4-Rajput has gunned down three civilians of Rafiabad area of Baramulla district, labeled them all as “infiltrating militants” and claimed to have recovered from them five AK-47 rifles during the night intervening April 29th and 30th. Army has claimed to have killed the three “unidentified militants” in a fierce encounter at Tanakpur Post, near Sonapindi, on the LoC.

Army had later handed over three dead bodies to Police Post Kalaroos. These were further handed over to the residents who buried the bodies in the local graveyard but only after Police took their photographs. Sources revealed to Early Times today that all the three youth have been found to be the residents of Rafiabad area of Baramulla district. Residents have identified one of them with the photographs available with DIG North Kashmir and SP Sopore. According to these sources, Police Station Panzla, Rafiabad, has tracked the movement of one of the three missing civilians with the help of his mobile phone signals which have shown him present in Kalaroos area of Kupwara district on April 27th and 28th.

According to these sources, Army had requested Police Post Kalaroos to record it as a “joint operation” but the men on duty got suspicious over recovery of five AK-47 rifles from just three “unidentified militants” and recorded it as an operation exclusively conducted by Army. It has been observed that the three civilians have been led to Sonapindi area for working as “porters” for the Army and killed only for claiming cash reward of Rs 6 Lakhs. Government has been paying cash reward of Rs 2 Lakh for killing of each militant to Police or armed forces involved in the operation.

Sources said that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has taken “extremely serious notice” of what could be the first major fake encounter during his 17-month-old coalition government and has all the potential of snowballing into a catastrophe---more so on the eve of the visits of the UPA Chairperson, Sonia Gandhi, and Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh. Chief Minister, according to sources, has immediately taken a meeting with Director General of J&K Police, Kuldeep Khoda, and directed him to collect all details and submit a detailed report within a day. Sources said that Chief Minister, who also happens to be the Chairman of Unified Headquarters, was likely to complain the matter to the top central authorities, including Mrs Gandhi, Prime Minister and the union Defence Minister.

While there was no response to phone calls from the office of Army’s spokesman at headquarters 15 Corps, incharge Superintendent of Police, Kupwara, Mohammad Yousuf Mir, insisted that he had not received any complaint in this matter till date. He said that Police had completed all formalities, including taking pictures of the dead bodies, before conducting the burial at Kalaroos with the help of residents. He, however, confirmed that in the afternoon today he had posted armed guard of 9 Police personnel on the graveyard in which the bodies had been buried in April. Asked why, he said it was “a precautionary measure”.

Police sources in Baramulla said that three youth of Rafiabad area, namely Riyaz Ahmed Lone S/o Mohammad Yousuf Lone, Shehzad Ahmed Khan S/o Ghulam Mohammad Khan and Mohammad Shafi Lone S/o Abdul Rashid Lone, were missing since April 27th and a missing report had been filed by their family members with Police Station Panzla. They said that an investigation was underway during which Police learned from some sources that a local counter-insurgent, namely Bashir Ahmed, had taken these youth to Kupwara in a Tata Sumo. They said Police were investigating whether same youth had been killed in a “fake encounter” after the signals of one of their mobile phones indicated the location of Kalaroos.

Residents of the Rafiabad village today put up a demonstration and blocked vehicular traffic for several hours with the demand that the dead bodies buried at Kalaroos be exhumed and the photographs be provided to them for identification. Authorities pacified the crowds with the assurance that the matter would be investigated. Reports available from Baramulla said that relatives of the missing youth would be submitting a formal application to District Magistrate of Baramulla on Friday to seek orders for exhumation of the dead bodies buried at Kalaroos.

While the most infamous of the fake encounters, including killing of five civilians of Anantnag district at Pathribal Panchalthan in the aftermath of the massacre of 35 Sikhs at Chittisingpura on March 20 in 2000, had happened in Dr Farooq Abdullah’s National Conference regime in 1996-2002 and also previously during Governor’s and President’s rule, four more civilians of Anantnag district and a resident of Banihal had been killed by SOG Ganderbal in a series of fake encounters during Ghulam Nabi Azad-led coalition government in 2006.

CBI has completed the investigation into the Pathribal fake encounter and filed challan against senior officials of Rashtriya Rifles 07 Bn, including a Brigadier. Police have completed the investigation into the Ganderbal fake encounters. A number of SOG Ganderbal personnel, including then SP Ganderbal, Hans Raj Parihar, have been continuously in jail since 2006. However, investigation has been inconclusive in the matter of Army having killed five porters of Jammu---all of them Hindus---in another fake encounter in Kalaroos area of Kupwara district in 2002.

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