Srinagar
In occupied Kashmir, Indian Army’s 62 RR camped at Keller in Shopian killed three non-locals including a 13 year-old boy. Two of them had been working locally as masons, claimed a student from a nearby village and had worked in the locality for many years.
KMS sources said, a heavily armed military contingent swooped on a house in Amshipora in Shopian early morning and started attacking the house with heavy mortars claiming it housed what they claimed were “terrorists”. Neighbours could hear the screaming of the inmates holed inside amid cries they were not militants but the army continued their relentless destruction till the house was razed.
Staged encounters, locally called fake encounters, have been the hallmark of Indian military in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir as killing of Kashmiris has been institutionally incentivised through out of turn promotions, public recognition and cash rewards.
Eyewitness accounts allege the army raided and ransacked several houses and beat up people including women and children. They also kidnapped several youth who were used as human shields during the staged and one-sided firefight. Some photographs of the incident showing a posse of army men holding Kashmiri youth as shields at the encounter site have since become viral.
Despite the army claims that two pistols were recovered at the destroyed house the dead bodies were identified as non-local Indian civilians. This has led to a high level altercation between the military and the police as the Jammu and Kashmir Police has refused to issue a customary statement about the incident and refused to own it. This is for the first time in years that the police has not issued such official press statement signifying a massive rift within the various occupation forces operating in the region.
The police sources claim the trophy hunting incident of the innocent civilians was initiated by the commanding officer of 62 RR because he had been under extreme pressure from his bosses to ‘score’ an encounter as his unit had failed to register one in the past nearly two years. This pushed him to zero in on the poor and unsuspecting Bihari labourers.
A journalist claimed there are rumours of secret army death squads roaming about in the area who are planning to kill a considerable number of Indian Hindu civilians to manufacture an India wide Hindu outrage to salvage Prime Minister Modi from the ongoing public relations disaster emanating from the military defeat in Ladakh.
In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred three more Kashmiri youth in Shopian district, today, raising the number of the youth martyred in the territory to seven since Thursday.
The troops martyred the three youth during a cordon and search operation in Amshipora of Shopian district. The operation continued till last reports came in.
Earlier, the troops martyred three youth during a similar operation in Nagnad Chimmer area of Kulgam district, yesterday.
One more youth was killed by the troops during a military operation in Keran area of Kupwara district on Thursday.—KMS
