Army Major's father asks SC to quash Shopian firing FIR, cites AFSPA

Father of one of the armymen named in an FIR against Army in Jammu and Kashmir’s Shopian has moved the Supreme Court. Army Major Aditya Kumar’s father has asked the top court to quash the FIR against his son.

Lieutenant Colonel Karamveer Singh said his son, a Major in the 10 Garhwal Rifles, has been "wrongly and arbitrarily" named in the FIR as the incident relates to an Army convoy on bonafide military duty in an area under the AFSPA, which was isolated by an "unruly and deranged" mob pelting stones causing damage to military vehicles.

The plea, filed through advocate Aishwarya Bhati, said the intention of his son was to save Army personnel and property and the fire was inflicted "only to impair and provide a safe escape from a savage and violent mob engaged in terrorist activity".

The unruly mob was requested to disperse and not obstruct military in performance of their duties and not to damage government property but when the situation reached beyond control, a warning was issued to disperse, the plea said.

As the unruly behaviour of the "unlawful assembly" reached peak and when they got hold of a Junior Commissioned Officer and were in the process of lynching him to death, warning shots were fired fire to disperse the violent mob and protect public property, it submitted.

Earlier, there were reports that the Army had filed a counter FIR in connection with the incident. However, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti clarified that no counter FIR had been filed by the Army over the death of civilians in a retaliatory firing by an Army patrol party when it was attacked with stones in Shopian on January 27.

"A day after the police filed an FIR into the firing incident, the Army filed a report about the incident in a police station. That report has been kept on record with the already filed FIR into this incident," Mufti had told the state assembly.

Three civilians were killed in firing by Army patrol party in Ganowpora village in Shopian on January 27, when a stone-pelting mob attacked an army convoy in the village.

A 10-year-old boy died in a hospital on Thursday after he was injured in an explosion on January 25 when a debris clearing operation was in progress in the Shaigam village.

While another civilian was killed on January 24, in a gunfight between security forces and militants in Shaigam village.

Jammu and Kashmir Police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were deployed in large numbers to maintain law and order in sensitive areas in the old city area.