Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Dec 9: A local court in Kupwara district of North Kashmir today sent a Territorial Army (TA) solider to three day police remand. He is accused of being behind the disappearances of three civilians in the area.
Judicial Magistrate Kupwara, Mansoor Ahmad Lone ordered the remand of the accused soldier Manzoor Ahmad Khawaja today after hearing arguments of the counsel, advocate Bilal Malik, for the families of the missing men and police’s chief prosecutor Ashiq Hussain.
The court also said that it can order the exhumation of bodies of militants who were killed in an encounter recently in Kupwara for DNA tests if the families suspect that their two missing members were killed in recent encounters in the district. The prosecution pleaded before the court that police has no objection in producing photographs of the militants killed in recent encounters along with other required evidence.
The families said that their members, Ghulam Jeelani Khatana, 42, son of Karim Din and Mir Hussain Khatana, 45, son of Muhammad Ismail, all residents of Gojar Patti (Satbonya) in Dardepora went missing after Khawaja called them on phone for porters’ job in army.
Khawaja, a rifleman of 160 TA Battalion, was arrested by police from his native village Dardpora last evening.
Police arrested the accused soldier and registered a case under FIR number 100/2015 under section 364 of RPC following an appeal by the families of the two missing men.
Meanwhile, the family of Ali Muhammad Sheikh, 40, son of Abdul Aziz of Dolipora, Trehgam, submitted an application before the police in which they have also alleged that Sheikh was called by Khawaja for a porter job in army.
Police said the family members of the missing persons were called to Police Station Kralpora and were shown photographs of the four militants killed in encounters since November 15 in the district. “The relatives of these missing persons denied resemblance of these photographs with those of their missing relatives in presence of the independent witnesses. Further investigation is going on,” the police said.
Meanwhile, an army spokesman in a statement said it stands by its policy of zero tolerance for Human Rights violations. He denied that the missing persons have been killed in fake encounters and announced that full cooperation is being extended to police into the investigation.
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