A Court of Inquiry set up by the Indian Army authorities on the pressure by international human rights organizations, has confirmed that the Indian Army troops were involved in the killing of three innocent Kashmiri youth in a fake encounter, staged by the soldiers in July 2020 in Amshipora area of Shopian district.
The three youth, all labourers, hailing from Rajouri district of Jammu region identified as Imtiyaz Ahmed, Abrar Ahmed and Mohammed Ibrar, were martyred by the troops in a remote hilly village in Shopian district on July 18, 2020 and labelled as “terrorists”.
The Indian Army posted the pictures of the martyred youth on social media, which raised doubts about the Army’s claim, leading to a strong demand for investigation of the killings by international human rights organizations. This forced the Indian Army to constitute a Court of Inquiry which found evidence that the troops had “exceeded” powers vested under the draconian law Armed Forces Special Powers Act and killed innocent youth in a fake encounter.
In a bid to hush up the matter, the Indian Army has initiated general court martial proceedings against a captain for the killing of three men in the fake encounter.
The court martial proceedings were then initiated against Captain Bhoopendra Singh.
The Court of Inquiry was followed by the Summary of Evidence, which was completed in the last week of December 2020. Subsequently, the Army had issued a statement saying “the process of recording the Summary of Evidence has been completed.
The officials said the captain was facing court martial proceedings for violating the powers vested under the AFSPA and for not following the Do’s and Don’ts of the Army as approved by the Indian Supreme Court.—KMS
