Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Police has
sought the custody of an Army Colonel, a Major and four others
for custodial interrogation in the alleged fake encounter of
three youths in Machil sector in frontier district of Kupwara
in April this year.
Sources in the state home department said a letter had
been sent to the local Army headquarter for handing over
Colonel D K Pathania, Major Upinder and four others for their
detailed custodial interrogation.
They claimed that the Army had been asked to hand over
the custody expeditiously as there was enough evidence to
suggest their involvement in the killing of Muhammad Shafi,
Shehzad Ahmed and Riyaz Ahmed.
They were gunned down on the night of April 29.
The sources said if the Army does not hand over the
officials, the police would be proceeding with its chargesheet
naming the Colonel, the Major and four personnel of other
ranks besides three civilians which includes a Territorial
Army jawan Abbas Shah.
Army officials were trying to invoke Armed Forces Special
Powers Act under which no official is to be handed over to the
civilian administration, but the state government claims that
the action was conducted allegedly with criminal intent.
The police have recorded the statements of various people
including the driver of the vehicle in which the three youths
were taken from their native village of Nadihal in Baramulla
district and were allegedly gunned down.
The state police has arrested three persons Abbas Shah --
the Territorial Army jawan, Basharat Lone and Abdul Hamid Bhat
-- for allegedly luring the three youths to the border and
staging a fake encounter in Machil sector of North Kashmir.
The state government has ordered a magisterial inquiry
into the case and also taken up the matter with the Defence
Ministry.
The exhumation of bodies and post-mortem was done by the
state government. The police had registered a missing report
on April 27 in this regard which was later converted into a
kidnapping case.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had asked Commander of 15
Corps Lt Gen N C Marwah to cooperate in the probe being
carried out by the police.
PTI
