Skinder Gull
Continuing their investigation against the Shopian encounter of July 18, which has been allegedly staged by the Government Forces, the Jammu Kashmir police has arrested two suspects..
A police official told The Kashmiriyat, that two suspects were detained on the charges of hatching a conspiracy for murdering the three labourers from Rajouri.
Though the Police did not disclose the identity of the arrested, they said that the arrested suspects are said to be from Chowgam area of Shopian and Nikas Arabal area of Pulwama district.
The accused are being questioned by Jammu Kashmir Police for their role in the killings and the chain of events that led to the murder of three missing labourers in Amshipora on July 18.
The Director General of Police Dilbagh Singh has also assured that police will conduct an impartial and fair probe into the incident.
Earlier the Indian Army launched an investigation into the Amshipora Shopian encounter.
On July 18, the Army claimed that three militants were killed in Amshipura village in the higher reaches of South Kashmir’s Shopian district.
The three were working as labourers in apple and walnut orchards in Amshipura. The missing report will be closed as now the three youths have been identified. Relatives of the three killed, belonging to Dhar Sakri village in Kotranka of Rajouri area in Poonch, had lodged a written missing persons report in the local police station after they lost contact with them on July 17.
The evidence collected indicates the three unidentified alleged militants killed in Amshipura were Imtiyaz Ahmed, Abrar Ahmed and Mohammed Ibrar who hailed from Rajouri, which was subsequently confirmed through a DNA test, that was delayed for more than 5 weeks.
The Army concluded that the Army unit involved in the shootout had exceeded the armed forces special powers act, army conduct rules and the special operating procedure guidelines given by the supreme court of India in the incident.
Civilian witnesses will be called for cross examination which included those who act as “informers” for the local army who may have possibly waylaid the troops in the wrong direction.
ccording to the rules, the case details will be examined under various provisions of law during the summary of evidence against the erring Army personnel following which Court Martial proceedings will be initiated.
The Army has been maintaining high standards of transparency and punishing officials whenever rules are violated, the officials said.
“You see every aspect of this needs to be probed thoroughly. The army is committed to bring the inquiry to its logical conclusion but every angle needs to be probed,” a senior army official said on condition of anonymity.
In a brief statement, the Army had said on September 18 that the Shopian operation contravened the dos and don’ts of the Chief of Army Staff approved by the Supreme Court. The families of the three men from Rajouri who worked as labourers in Shopian had also filed a police complaint.
Taking a serious note of the incident, the army had published a general advertisement in local newspapers, asking people with any “credible information” about the case to step forward and share it with the court of inquiry instituted by the Army.
The room was the site of the encounter two days later, the complaint stated.
Police, meanwhile, are probing the call details and why they jumped out of a window when an operation was launched at their rented accommodation where, their rented room became the site of the encounter.