Indian army snatches private vehicles from civilians in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, uses them in fake encounters and destroys them while their owners are often arrested and subjected to inhuman torture in Indian army camps.
BBC Hindi lifts veils on this less-talked about tragedy of the Kashmiri people in its one of the latest reports on the miseries of Kashmiri people in the occupied territory.
As per BBC report, the Indian army itself admitted that the soldiers use vehicles of common people for the operations. The BBC starts its report from the ordeal of one Aijaz Ahmad:
Ajaz Ahmad, a resident of Reshinagari in Shopian district, had to go to court once again last week. For two years, Ajaz Ahmad has visited the court so many times for his car that he has now forgotten the count.
Ejaz Ahmad, 39, lives in this village and is a farmer by profession. For the last two years, the documents of his Maruti Astar car are confiscated in the court.
The reason is that his car was used by the army in an ‘encounter’, which after investigation was proven to be fake. It also proved that Indian troops use vehicles of common people in Kashmir.
People of South Kashmir say that Aijaz Ahmed is not alone victim, the army often takes vehicles of civilians, with many locals alleging that their cars were “forcibly taken away”.
BBC visited a total 15 villages of Shopian, Pulwama and Kulgam and people in these villages said that army camps snatch private vehicles of common people, as when army asks for vehicles, no one can dare to refuse out of fear of reprisals.
In 2020, the killing of three labourers labeled by Indian army as ‘dangerous terrorists’ in Amshipura village of Shopian in fake encounter, has been the most talked about fake encounter of recent times.
On July 18, 2020, the Indian army reported that 62 Rashtriya Rifles had “killed three terrorists in an encounter”. A month after this incident, three families living in Rajouri, filed a missing report.KMS—6K
