Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Sept 30: Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, Vijay Kumar today said that bodies of three labourers who were killed in Amshipora, Shopian encounter on July 18 this year will be exhumed and handed over to their families after following legal procedure.
“Since DNA samples (of slain trio) matched with their families, three bodies will be exhumed and handed over to families after due process of law,” Kumar told Excelsior.
The development comes just a day after DGP Dilbag Singh said that police probe into the Amshipora encounter was in a final stage. There has been an immense pressure from the families that the bodies of their wards be exhumed and handed over to them since DNA samples have matched and the investigations by police and Army have already proved that their kin were killed in a staged encounter.
Muhammad Yousuf, father of one of the youth killed in Amshipora said that they were contacted by the Rajouri administration for consultations. “We demand immediate exhumation of bodies of our sons, compensation and punishment to those involved in fake encounter,” he said.
The Army had ordered a Court of Inquiry into the encounter last month after the three families came forward to say the youths were cousins – one of them was reportedly 16 years old – who had gone to Kashmir for work and not been in touch since July 17 night.
On September 18, the Army said that “the Do’s and Don’ts of Chief of Army Staff (COAS) as approved by the Supreme Court have been contravened” in the course of the operation.
The Army did not elaborate on exactly how the Armed Forces Special Powers Act was exceeded and the guidelines were contravened, but said that disciplinary proceedings under the Army Act will be initiated against those found prima facie answerable.
These youth who were killed were identified by their families as Imtiyaz Ahmed, Abrar Ahmed and Mohammad Ibrar, residents of Rajouri. The Army had dubbed them as unidentified militants and police buried them under COVID-19 protocol for militants.
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