The Jammu and Kashmir police has formally sought the custody of an Army colonel, a major and four others for custodial interrogation in the alleged staged gunfight killing of four local youth in Machael sector near the Line of Control in on April 30 this year.
The youth, residents of Nadihal of Baramulla district of the state, were reportedly lured to the LoC on the promise of being provided employment in the Army but shot dead by the troops in fate encounter and later dubbed as infiltrating foreign terrorists, the crime apparently committed either for financial rewards or professional enhancement.
The state home department has in a letter to the Army’s Srinagar-based 15 Corps headquarters asked for handing over Colonel D.K. Pathania, Major Upinder, both belonging to Army’s 4 Rajput regiment, and four others for their detailed custodial interrogation. The letter asks for handing over the custody expeditiously as there was enough evidence to suggest their involvement in the killing of Muhammad Shafi, Shehzad Ahmed and Riyaz Ahmed.
The unit involved in the alleged crime was shifted out of the Valley recently in a “routine process,” said as claimed by the Army a high level inquiry into the gory incident is already underway.
The police has already arrested five persons including a soldier of 161 battalion of territorial army, Abbas Hussein, a former Special Police Officer (SPO) Bashir Ahmed Lone, his brother Abdul Qayyum and two others Fayaz Ahmed Ikhwani and Abdul Majeed Butt who had been working for the Army for quite some time and have been identified as collaborators in the crime.
Official sources here said if the Army does not hand over the officials, the police would be proceeding with its charge sheet naming the colonel, the major and four personnel of other ranks besides three civilians.