Srinagar
In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, killing of Kashmiri youth in custody has become a regular feature of Indian troops particularly after revocation of special status of the territory on August 5, 2019.
An analytical report released by Kashmir Media Service, today, said that extrajudicial killing of Kashmiri youth is reflective of the culture of impunity being enjoyed by the troops in the occupied territory. The report referred to the enforced disappearance of more than 8,000 Kashmiris, believed to have been killed in custody of Indian forces, since 1989 in IIOJK and said that the killing of three Kashmiri labourers from Rajouri by troops in the Shopian fake encounter on July 18 has brought back painful memories of all such killings in the past.
The report quoted renowned Kashmiri journalist Muzammil Jaleel who in a fresh article criticized Indian Army for not clearly admitting that the youth were killed in a staged encounter and said that the army had tried to hide its wrongdoing behind words and phrases like —“whether they were militants or not is still not known”.
“The Army probe has not answered the most important question. Was the encounter stage managed and fake or not? When they could establish the identity of the three youth who were killed and admit that they indeed are the missing youngsters from Rajouri, why aren’t they saying that the encounter was fake,” Muzammil asked.
The KMS report cited a few examples from the past to prove that Indian troops were habitual of killing Kashmiris in fake encounters. “In 2000, the Indian army killed five men it alleged were militants responsible for the massacre of 35 Sikhs in Kashmir.
An investigation later found the five were local villagers killed in a faked firefight,” the report said.
“In 2010, a massive uprising erupted in Kashmir after a police investigation found Indian soldiers had killed three civilians in a staged gunbattle and then said the victims were militants in order to claim a reward for killing them.
The army responded by just suspending two officers,” the report added.—KMS
