Jawans dismissed for 'cowardice' move tribunal for relief

Eight jawans, who were dismissed from the Army and jailed for showing "cowardice" during a suicide attack by militants in Jammu and Kashmir, have moved the Armed Forces Tribunal against their court martial.

Seeking their reinstatement, the jawans from the 610 EME Battalion have urged the Tribunal to quash the "discriminatory" court martial held by the Army against them, their counsel Colonel (retd) SR Kalkal told PTI here.

The jawans who have filed the petition include Naik AR Das, Subedar GP Sharma, Digamabar, Lance Naik Christopher Columbus, BD Rao, Sunil Pandurang and Madhusudan.

Apart from being dismissed, all of them were awarded jail terms ranging from six months to two years.

They were court-martialled after they were found guilty of trying to run away from the scene of action during a terrorist attack on their camp in Akhnoor in 2003.

Kalkal said one of the Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs), who was not issued weapons and had suffered bullet injuries in the attack and was recovered in an unconscious state, was also court-martialled and awarded a jail sentence.

The suicide attack was one of biggest on Army installations where terrorists had shot dead a Brigadier and seven soldiers in Akhnoor.

After the initial attack, several senior officers of Northern Command had reached the spot as the local Army authorities thought they had eliminated all the terrorists but one of the terrorists who was hiding fired bullets and hurled grenades, which killed Brig HS Govil on the spot.