Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 26: In a significant decision, the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) has suspended the life imprisonment of five Army personnel including a Colonel and a Captain, who were convicted by a General Court Martial in 2014 for staging the killing of three Kashmiri civilians at Machil in 2010 and branding them as foreign militants for the sake of medals and rewards.
Three civilians- Shazad Khan (27), Shafi Lone (19) and Riyaz Lone (20) of Nadihal village in Rafiabad had been lured to an Army camp at Kalaroos in Kupwara where they were subsequently killed in a staged encounter during the intervening night of April 29 and 30, 2010 at Sona Pindi in Machil sector on the Line of Control.
The Army had dubbed them as foreign militants who were killed in an encounter while trying to infiltrate the Line of Control. Their bodies had been buried in a local graveyard near the LoC.
Subsequently, when the bodies of these youth were exhumed from Machil graveyard where they had been buried as unidentified Pakistani terrorists, the families identified them as the three missing men from Nadihal village in Rafiabad. This fake encounter triggered massive protests across Kashmir. The Government constituted a high-level inquiry commission while Army too ordered a high level probe.
The Army finally initiated court martial proceedings in December 2013 after the findings of a court of inquiry report by the then Commander of 68 Mountain Brigade, Brigadier G S Sangha.
After the court martial led by Brigadier Deepak Mehra of 68 Mountain Brigade concluded its proceedings, the Army’s Northern Command had confirmed the sentence in 2015, making it the first case in Kashmir where Army personnel were awarded life terms for their involvement in a fake encounter. The then Commanding Officer of 4 Rajputana Rifles, Colonel Dinesh Pathania, Captain Upendra, Havildar Devendra Kumar, Lance Naik Lakhmi and Lance Naik Arun Kumar had challenged their sentence before Armed Forces Tribunal.
“Their (life) sentence has been sentenced and they will be out of jail in a day or two. This is a huge victory for us,” said Major Anand Kumar (retired), who represented the convicted Army personnel. “(the then) Omar Abdullah Government (in J&K) had pressurized the Congress government at Centre and that is why this happened. We are confident that the entire case will be thrown out”.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel