2003 Kupwara suicide attack | HC of J&K and Ladakh sentences ex-SHO Ghulam Rasool Wani to life imprisonment

Srinagar: The High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has sentenced a former Station House Officer (SHO), Ghulam Rasool Wani, to life imprisonment for criminal conspiracy in the 2003 Kupwara fidayeen (suicide) attack, a case that underscores how a few rogue elements within the police colluded with militants during the peak of insurgency.

A division bench of Justice Sanjeev Kumar and Justice Sanjay Parihar, while partly allowing the state’s appeal, overturned a 2011 Sessions Court acquittal, holding that Wani knowingly facilitated a Pakistani Jaish-e-Mohammad militant to carry out the deadly attack.

“The then SHO Wani, fully aware of the terrorist’s identity and objectives, permitted him to carry out the attack, thereby tacitly consenting to the killing of security personnel,” the bench observed, calling the trial court’s earlier approach “perverse and erroneous”.

The case relates to May 12, 2003, when Jaish militant Mohammad Ibrahim alias Khalil-Ullah, dressed in police uniform, was transported from Sogam Police Station to Kupwara Chowk in a police vehicle.

Once in the busy marketplace, he opened fire, killing two CRPF men of 113 Battalion, Constables B Prashad and B Ramaiah, and injuring six others before being shot dead.

“The act of allowing a fully armed terrorist to proceed unhindered towards a crowded marketplace was akin to firing a loaded cannon into a crowd. The intention to cause death is writ large,” the court noted.

The judgment has revived memories of the 1990s and 2000s when a handful of compromised policemen acted as facilitators of militancy, even as the force as a whole fought on the frontlines against terror.

One of the starkest examples came on January 25, 1992, when a massive bomb exploded inside the Police Headquarters in Srinagar, injuring Director General of Police (DGP) J N Saksena and other senior police officials.

Later probes suggested the strike would not have been possible without insider assistance, exposing the dangers posed by rogue elements within the system.

Security analysts say the Kupwara case falls into the same pattern. “Militancy had infiltrated deep into institutions, and occasionally officials who were supposed to defend the state betrayed it instead,” a retired police officer said.

While convicting Wani, the High Court confirmed the acquittal of Abdul Ahad Rather, the then Moharir of Sogam Police Station, citing lack of evidence. Proceedings against the militant stood abated as he was killed during the attack.

“The state has proved conspiracy under Section 120-B read with 302 RPC beyond doubt in respect of Wani,” the bench held, stressing that failure by a police officer to uphold his oath was tantamount to aiding terrorism.

Delivered more than two decades after the incident, the ruling not only punishes Wani but also serves as a judicial reminder of the rare but dangerous collusion of rogue policemen with militants in Kashmir’s troubled past.