NEW DELHI: The Indian Army on Thursday convicted seven soldiers, including two officers, and sentenced them to life imprisonment for the staged killing of three civilians in Jammu and Kashmir in 2010. The service benefits of the seven convicted army men have also been suspended.
On April 30, 2010, three civilians — Shahzad Ahmad Khan, Mohammad Shafi Lone and Riyaz Ahmad Lone of Nadihal, Rafiabad in Sopore — were lured to work as porters for the army in Kupwara district. Instead, the army killed them in a fake encounter, applied black paint on the clean-shaven faces of the slain, placed weapons on them and said they had killed foreign militants. It was later found out that they were the three civilians missing from Rafiabad.
The staged killings, known as the Machil fake encounter case, became one of the important reasons for the 2010 mass protests in Kashmir, in which the Indian police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) killed more than 120 young unarmed protesters.
Police had registered a case and charged 11 men. This list included a surrendered militant who worked with the army, Bashir Ahmad Lone, and Abdul Hamid and Syed Abbas of the Territorial Army, Colonel D K Pathania who was commanding officer of 4-Rajput, Major Moriya, who was the adjutant and Major Upinder.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah tweeted about the verdict, calling it a welcome step and a watershed moment.
The Machil encounter conviction comes days after the Indian Army shot and killed two young men when their vehicle sped past a check post without stopping when it was asked to. The army has accepted its mistake and an enquiry is going on.
The Machil encounter had revealed a new phenomenon in the army where staged encounters led to decorations and rewards. In some cases these were encounters that never took place; in others, innocent civilians were killed and later passed off as militants.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 14th, 2014.
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