NEW DELHI: Indian army’s Kashmir-based northern command on Monday confirmed the life sentences of six army personnel, including two officers in a 2010 fake encounter case in Machil in the state’s Kupawara district, the Indian Express said.

“Col Dinesh Pathania, Captain Opendra, Havaldar Devender Kumar, Lance naik Lakhmi, Lance naik Arun Kumar and rifleman Abbas Hussain have been awarded life imprisonment,’’ said a spokesman for the Army’s Northern Command.

The Army Court had last year sentenced them for their involvement in the killing of three Kashmiris in a fake encounter in Machil five years ago, the Express said.

This is the first case in the Valley in which Indian Army personnel have been awarded life terms on these charges.

According to the paper, on April 29, 2010, Shezad Ahmad, Riyaz Ahmad and Mohammad Shafi from Nadihal village of Baramulla were lured by two local counter-insurgency agents - Bashir Ahmad Lone and Abdul Hamid - and a Territorial Army jawan Abbas Hussain Shah to Kalaroos village in the Machil sector near the LoC.

The three, who were promised jobs as porters and “good money”, were then killed by the soldiers near the Sona Pindi post and dubbed as “Pakistani militants”. The victims’ real identities were revealed a month later when their bodies were exhumed following a public outcry.

The Express said that the state government had constituted a high-level inquiry commission to investigate the killings, but its report was never made public.

The killings sparked widespread unrest in the Valley in which 123 people were killed.

Soon after the incident, the Army removed Colonel Pathania from the post of Commanding Officer while Major Opendra was suspended after an internal inquiry. Court martial proceedings were initiated in December 2013 based on the findings of a court of inquiry report that was submitted by the then Commander of 68 Mountain Brigade Brigadier G.S. Sangah.

The Army probe was set up following a notice issued by the Sopore Chief Judicial Magistrate based on a chargesheet filed by local police against 11 persons including nine Army officials and two civilians who were charged under Sections 302 (murder), 364 (abduction), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intent) of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC).

In April 2013, the Express said, a civil court had handed over custody of the Territorial Army’s Abbas Hussain Shah to the Army for recording evidence. The court martial has now acquitted Hussain while the two other civilians - Lone and Hamid - are still in custody.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2015

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