Shopian fake encounter: Army initiates Court Martial against Captain

The 3 labourers had gone to Kashmir from their hometown Rajouri in Jammu, looking for work and were killed in Amshipora village in July 2020

The Army has initiated Court Martial against a Captain involved in an alleged fake encounter in which three labourers from Rajouri district were killed in Amshipora village of south Kashmir’s Shopian district in July 2020.

The Court Martial proceedings have been started against captain Bupinder of Army’s 62 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) for violating the powers vested under the Armed Force Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Amshipora staged encounter.

“The Army has initiated general court martial proceedings against a Captain in Op Amshipura, Shopian in south Kashmir in July 2020 after the Court of Inquiry and the Summary of Evidence indicated a need for disciplinary proceedings,” PRO Defence said in a statement.

He said the Indian Army is committed to ethical conduct of operations. “Further updates on the case will be shared in a manner so as not to prejudice due process of law,” the statement said.

Senior officials of Army's 15-Corps said the Court Martial proceedings have started some time earlier and they have been going on.

The three labourers, one of them a 16-year-old, had gone to Kashmir from their hometown Rajouri in Jammu, looking for work. They were killed in Amshipora village in Shopian on July 18, 2020. On July 19, the army announced that three “terrorists” had been killed in the encounter, which had taken place following a cordon-and-search operation in Amshipora.

The Army gave a detailed account saying the security forces had been fired upon, that there was exchange of fire, and during the recovery of bodies, they had found arms, ammunition and IED material at the hideout.

However, the incident came under the scanner a month later when families from Rajouri claimed that their kin, who went to Shopian, had gone missing. Following these claims, the Army and the Police ordered separate inquiries into the matter.

The DNA samples of the families were lifted on August 13 and sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) for examination and comparison with the “three unidentified slain militants.” On September 25, the DNA sample reports of the three slain persons matched with their parents.

On September 18, the Army initiated disciplinary action against unnamed soldiers and officers involved in the Amshipora encounter. In a brief statement, the Army had then accepted that its men ‘prima facie’ violated powers under the AFSPA.

The slain men had been buried at a graveyard in north Kashmir’s Baramulla, where unidentified militants are interred. Their bodies were exhumed on October 3, after around 70 days, and later buried in their home town.

In October 2020, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha visited the three families and assured them that justice would be delivered.

On December 24, 2020, the Army said the ‘summary of evidence’ proceedings into the Amshipora ‘encounter’ case have been completed.

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