Fake encounter cops held in J&K

SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir police on Saturday arrested two senior police officers in connection with the fake encounter killings of at least three persons in the state. Ganderbal Senior Superintendent of Police H R Parihar and Deputy Superintendent of Police Ram Bahadur were arrested on Saturday morning in connection with the murders of at least three men.

Parihar was the chief of the Special Operations Group, which allegedly shot dead the three men and branded them as militants. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Jammu and Kashmir Police is presently investigating the deaths and exhuming bodies.  The dead men have been identified as Abdul Rehman Padaroo, a carpenter who disappeared on December 8 last year; Nazeer Ahmed Deka, who was killed in an alleged fake encounter in Ganderbal in February 2006 and Showkat Ahmad Khan, who disappeared in October 2006.

The SIT exhumed Padaroo's body in Sumbal area of Baramulla district on Thursday. Investigators are exhuming two bodies, suspected to that of Deka and Showkat, found in Saloora and Ajas villages of Ganderbal.