Army probe into alleged fake encounter in Shopian begins

The Army on Monday said that a court of inquiry (CoI) is underway into the alleged fake encounter of July 18 in Shopian and the statements of key witnesses are being recorded.

“Statements of key witnesses are being recorded and progress is being monitored closely. Additional civil witnesses are being asked to depose before the CoI,” Defence spokesman Col Rajesh Kalia, said.

He said concurrently, DNA samples have been collected from Rajouri under the aegis of Jammu and Kashmir police and sent for matching with the “militants” killed on July 18, 2020.

The controversy erupted after family members of three labourers from Rajouri in Jammu, who went missing from south Kashmir’s Shopian district on July 17 alleged, on the basis of photographs, that the three unidentified militants the army said it killed in a gunfight there on July 18, were, in fact, their innocent relatives.

They said the trio had gone to Shopian in south Kashmir to work as laborers to earn a living. The bodies of the trio were buried in north Kashmir’s Baramulla after being listed as unidentified.

On August 11, the Army had stated that it had taken note of the social media reports where netizens had termed the encounter as fake and maintained that “investigation into the matter was ordered.”

Col Kalia said that the Army was committed to the ethical conduct of all the counter-insurgency operations. “Cases, where doubts are raised, are investigated under due process as per the law of the land. Since the case is under investigation, further details will be shared periodically, as appropriate without affecting the due legal process,” he added.

The J&K police have already collected DNA samples of three families to match them with those of three young men killed in the alleged fake encounter in Shopian. The samples have been sent to Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) for cross-matching the reports of which are expected by September 5.

The families have been demanding an independent probe, and it has been supported by Amnesty International and other civil society groups.