ARMY TO PROBE ‘HUMAN SHIELD’ INCIDENT IN J&K
NEW DELHI: The army has ordered a Court of Inquiry into the controversial “human shield” incident in Kashmir in which a man was tied to an army vehicle purportedly as a shield against stone pelters. Sources said the CoI has been given one month’s time to complete the probe. A video showed the man tied to an army vehicle as a shield against stone pelters during the Srinagar LS byelection polling on April 9.
NEWDELHI: The army has ordered a court of inquiry (CoI) into the incident involving a Kashmiri man being tied to a jeep and used as a human shield in Kashmir, army officials said on Thursday. The CoI will submit its report by May 15.
The army is in the middle of a firestorm after a video clip surfaced last week showing a Kashmiri man tied to the jeep. It was purportedly done to deter stone-pelters who had surrounded the vehicles of security forces.
Major Leetul Gogoi had ordered the man, said to be a stone thrower, to be tied to the Rakshak vehicle to ensure a safe passage for the convoy he was leading. The CoI will find out what really happened and what circumstances led to the man being tied in front of the vehicle. “It’s a fact-finding exercise,” an official said. The army action has left Kashmir seething and divided public opinion.
The government appeared to be backing the army, with the country’s top law officer saying earlier this week that the officer-in-charge “did a smart thing and defused a nasty situation.” Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said the major was summoned by officials in the poll booth since they were surrounded by several hundred stone pelters. “The poll booth is symbolic of democracy. He (the major) should not be criticised. The army should be applauded. They are guarding our northern and north-eastern frontiers admirably,” Rohatgi said in a statement on Monday.
OFFICER ‘SAVED LIVES’ BY TYING MAN TO JEEP IN KASHMIR: MADHAV
Meanwhile, BJP general secretary Ram Madhav on Thursday complimented the army officer responsible for tying a man to a jeep’s bonnet in Kashmir, saying “everything is fair in love and war” and the “harsh” decision saved lives of civilians and soldiers.
Madhav said nobody wants this. However, he justified the act by saying if one person’s human rights are violated in order to protect the human rights of many more, he will leave that judgement to the officer concerned.
Had the army not done so, then the mob there would have lynched over 50 civilians and almost equal number of security personnel there, he claimed. PTI