AFT suspends life imprisonment of five armymen

THE INCIDENT TOOK PLACE IN APRIL 2010 WHEN THE THREE KASHMIRIS OF NADIHAL VILLAGE OF BARAMULLA DISTRICT WERE KILLED BY THE ARMY

NEW DELHI/SRINAGAR: A military court suspended on Wednesday the life sentence given to five soldiers who were convicted of killing three Kashmiri civilians in a staged shootout.

Six Indian army personnel, including a Colonel, were courtmartialed for what came to be known as the Macchil killings in 2010. The incident triggered a cycle of violence in Kashmir that eventually left 113 people dead.

On Wednesday, the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) suspended the sentences given to five of them — Colonel Dinesh Pathania, Captain Upendra, Havildar Devinder and Lance Naiks Arun Kumar and Lakh mi — who were also given bail. The sixth convict, rifleman Abbas Hussain Shah of the territorial army, was already on bail.

“We had pleaded that on the grounds of parity the other convicts should also get the benefit of being released on bail. And this has been appreciated by the tribunal,” said Major SS Pandey (retd), a lawyer in the case.

He added there was no direct evidence against the convicted soldiers and the circumstantial evidence was also questionable. Wednesday’ s development came as a shock to the family of the victims, who were allegedly lured by a former special police officer and his accomplices to Macchil after being promised jobs.

They were allegedly handed over to the army for ₹50,000 each before the troops killed them in a staged encounter near the border with Pakistan on April 29, 2010.