Afspa exceeded in J&K killings: Army
Disciplinary action initiated against the officials who killed 3 locals in Shopian
SRINAGAR: The army on Friday said that powers vested under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (Afspa) were violated in the July killing of three people, believed to be terrorists, in Shopian in the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir, and that the three were actually locals from Rajouri in the same UT, although their involvement in terror activities is still being investigated.
The families of the three had blamed army for killing them in a fake encounter.
Army spokesperson Rajesh Kalia said in a statement that the inquiry ordered by army authorities into the operation at Amshipora in Shopian on July 18 has concluded.
“The inquiry has brought out certain prima facie evidence indicating that during the operation, powers vested under the AFSPA 1990 were exceeded and the Do’s and Don’ts of Chief of Army Staff (COAS) as approved by the Hon’ble Supreme Court have been contravened. Consequently, the competent disciplinary authority has directed initiation of disciplinary proceedings under the Army Act against those found prima-facie answerable,” the spokesperson added. He said the evidence collected showed that the three unidentified men killed in Amshipora are actually Imtiyaz Ahmed, Abrar Ahmed and Mohd Ibrar, from Rajouri.
“Their DNA report is awaited. Their involvement with terrorism or related activities is under investigation by the police. Army is committed to ethical conduct of operations,” the spokesman said. Following the inquiry report, former J&K DGP Shesh Paul Vaid tweeted, “Killing innocent youth and show them as terrorists is most heinous crime and those involved should be charged for murder.”
Last week, the families of the three wrote to Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, seeking his intervention after the DNA reports were delayed.
The three men, related to each other, were gunned down in an encounter on July 18. DNA samples from their families were sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) Srinagar, and the FSL at Chandigarh.
People familiar with the matter said the government has received the FSL report from the Srinagar lab, but its contents had not been made public.
“Our children left for Shopian on July 16, in search of work. After a couple of days, we lost contact with the children. So, we decided to lodge a missing complaint,” the letter from the families said, adding that on August 10, they came to know that all three men were killed in an encounter.