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Innerwear led to conviction of Armymen in fake encounter case

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An innerwear and a footwear finally led to the first ever conviction of 7 army officers in a fake encounter case for killing three youths after branding them militants in Machil near the LoC in North Kashmir in April 2010.

Those convicted by the General Court Marshal are the then commanding officer of 4 Rajput Regiment Colonel DK Pathania, Captain Upendra Singh, Subedar Satbir Singh, Havildar Bur Singh, sepoys Chandraban, Nagendra Singh and Narinder Singh. Another accused Abbaas Hussain Shah of Territorial Army, who had allegedly lured these youths for job in the Army, has been exonerated.

The army had decided to court martial its men in December 2013, three years after three youth, Shezad Ahmad, Riyaz Ahmad and Mohammad Shafi of Nadihal, were branded infiltrators and killed on the Line of Control at Machil. In its report on April 30, 2010 the army said it has foiled an infiltration bid from across the LoC at Machil sector by killing three armed militants from Pakistan and that it recovered five AK47 rifles, ammunition and Pakistani currency from them. The bodies were disfigured. But when the bodies were handed over to police, the local SHO got suspicious as the youth were wearing Rupa underwear and sleepers.

"We got suspicious because army had claimed they had killed militants when they were infiltrating through snow clad passes. Both underwear as well as footwear nailed their lie and we decided to post their pictures in newspapers," a senior police official told dna. These youth were later identified as Shezad Ahmad, Riyaz Ahmad and Mohammad Shafi of Nadihal near Baramulla.

The charge sheet said Shahzad Ahmed (27) and Riyaz Ahmed (23) had been lured to the army camp by promising them jobs as ammunition porters by informers Bashir Ahmad Lone and Abdul Hamid Bhat along with Territorial Army rifleman Abbas Hussain Shah. Shezad and Riyaz took Mohammad along. They were then shot in cold blood in the desolate woods of Machil sector. They (Army) buried them at Sonapindi pass in Kupwara where unmarked graves, hinting at similar fake encounters, dot the graveyards, but not before it had raised suspicion in the minds of a local SHO, who informed the SSP Baramulla Altaf Khan.

When the news about killing of three innocent village boys spread, hundreds of villagers gathered at Nadihal demanding action against the accused Armymen. At Baramulla town the police opened fire on the protesters. However, the protest intensified and swept across the Valley. On June 11, 2010 it claimed its first victim — a 17-year-old Tufail Ahmed Mantto in Srinagar when he was hit by a teargas shell.

Thereafter, a vicious circle set in and since then much of situation is depressingly familiar in Kashmir — an incident sparking demonstrations. The interrogation reports of three civilian accused in the fake killing has also unearthed chilling evidence of Kashmirís well-organised vicious killing machine.

According to the police investigation spearheaded by the SSP Khan on April 9, 2010 Captain Upendra Singh called from his cell phone to Bashir Lone, on his cell phone and Abbas Hussain Shah (both informers). One of the basic rule of the Intelligence business is never to speak to your sources on phone, but apparently this was precisely what Major Upender, despite being at intelligence (G2) at 19 Divisional headquarters at Baramulla, forgot on that fateful day. The call details and tower planting of his and the renegades' cell phones would later provide the clue to the police in the case. The cell phone details revealed the location of Bashir during that fateful day of April 29 and also that he was in constant touch Captain Upendra.

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