Irshad Hussain
Here in Shopian, scores of people have gathered at the house of Ghulam Mohammed Lone. Lone family lives in Shopian’s Turkwangam area. The Shopian district has seen hundreds of Militant and civilian killings in the new wave of Militancy in Kashmir, which erupted in 2016. Prominent commanders of the “New Age Militancy” hailed from this apple-rich district of South Kashmir. Dozens of neighbours of the Zubair Ahmed Lone have gathered at his house in absolute amazement of the news that struck the area like a volcano on the 30th day of December last year, that three “Militants” had been killed in the encounter in Lawaypora area of Srinagar, one of them was 23-year-old Zubair.
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Leaving home after having Lunch, Zubair told his mother that he would return soon. “I have to get my bike from Srinagar, I shall return by the evening or by early morning tomorrow,” Zubair told his parents on 29 December (Tuesday). The next day the family tried to dial his number, but was on a switched off mode. “A few minutes later, we got a call from the Police station that Zubair was among the Militants killed in the Lawaypora Encounter.”
The srinagar encounter has sent Shockwaves to Turkwangam Shopian where people have gathered in large numbers outside the house of Zubair Lone, 23 (one of the 3 slain 'Militants').zubair, as per his family had lunch with his family & told his family, he was going out for some work
— Qazi Shibli (قاضی شبلی) (@QaziShibli) December 30, 2020
The initial alarm on the encounter was raised on the 30th by The Kashmiriyat editor Qazi Shibli around 1:20 PM. The families soon reached the Police Control room in Srinagar and staged a protest claiming that the three were killed in a staged encounter, a claim refuted by Forces, who said that the trio was planning a “Major attack” along the Baramulla- Srinagar highway.
As the claims of the Fake encounter in the aftermath of Shopian Fake encounter grew, the Jammu Kashmir Police’s Official Twitter handle posted a video wherein following an SOP, the forces were heard appealing the “trapped terrorists” to surrender to the Forces who had laid a siege around the area in which the trio was said to be hiding, but the family has questioned the authenticity of the video.
“Nothing is proven in the video, we do not know if anyone is hiding in the building, the video could be dubbed, why did it take seven days for Police to release the video, which is otherwise done even before the encounter most of the times?” a brother of Zubair told The Kashmiriyat over the phone.
On 29/12/20 evening after the cordon at #Hokersar, troops are repeatedly #appealing the trapped #terrorists to come out and #surrender with assurances that they will not be harmed. @JmuKmrPolice pic.twitter.com/B625zd78yY
— Kashmir Zone Police (@KashmirPolice) January 4, 2021
Many social media users and journalists questioned the video and supported the families of the trio who have been demanding the bodies of the slain youth be returned to their legal heirs for their proper last rites.
Altaf, the brother of Zubair who was in-charge of burying the dead Militants in Ganderbal graveyard said that it was too painful to receive his own brother’s body to bury it. The Government Forces in order “to prevent mass separatist sentiment” adopted a new Policy to not hand over the bodies of Militants to their families. Hundreds of slain Militants since April 2020 have been buried miles away from their homes.
The families also said that the recovery of weapons does not prove anything. “Police in their own charge sheet in Shopian fake encounter said that the Army had planted the weapons illegally on the bodies of the three civilians,” the family member said.
Not the First Fake Encounter Claim in Hokarsar Srinagar
In Pulwama, The Father of Athar Mushtaq who was among those killed in the encounter has dug a grave for him (Athar) at his residence in Bellow area of Pulwama. He warned the administration that if his son’s body is not returned, he will end his life too.
Mushtaq Ahmed said that Ather had left home and the family does not know what happened after. “My son is innocent, he has no distant affiliation to Militancy, he was probably picked up from a vehicle and later kidnapped and shot dead in cold blood, probably by some Army official for medals and securing higher positions in the Army,” Parvez said, while as the family of Zubair said, “If he had to join Militancy, he would probably do that in the peak of 2017 and 18, when MIlitancy was flourishing in the Shopian district, he was home till 3 PM on Tuesday, and had no inclination towards Militancy, he had not even spoken to anyone about anything distantly related to Militancy or pro-resistance struggle ever.”
They said he (Zubair) was a labourer and owed money to people. “Only someone from Kashmir would understand that if he had to join Militancy, he would have shared his monetary stats with someone anyone or told his family members about how much he owed to people,” his brother told The Kashmiriyat.
Since the outbreak of the armed struggle against Indian rule in 1989 in Kashmir, forces have carried out countless anti-insurgency encounters across the valley in which tens and thousands of militants including civilians were killed.
Undoubtedly, forces are killing militants in encounters, but at the same time have been accused by people of “Staging gunfights” just for their promotions and monetary rewards like in the recent case of Athar Parvaiz of Pulwama.
The Final gunfight of the year 2020, at Hokarsar area in district Srinagar where three youth were killed by security forces, has come under the cloud of suspicion. As the news of their deaths, and pictures surfaced on social media, the family of the trio killed marched towards Police control room Srinagar (PCR) and Staged a protest. They said the trio were innocent.
Hokarsar area has a history of fake encounters in past as well when a deaf and dumb person was allegedly killed. On 30 December 2000, when a deaf and dumb Manzoor Bhat, 40 years old left his home in Gund Hassi Bhat area of Srinagar, to bring grass and other required stuff for his cattle. As he reached Hokersar wetland, forces laid cordon on banks of wetland. And as per the locals, the forces screamed at him, but he couldn’t listen due to his disability.
Locals alleged that security forces killed him while he was in the boat and later, weapons were planted on his body. It is not for the first time that the forces have been accused of “staging gunfights.
Kashmir has a history when it comes to fake encounters which remains a question mark on the state and those who conduct anti-insurgency operations across Kashmir.
The Recent staged gunfight at Ashimpora in which forces claimed to kill three Pakistani terrorists, which later turned out to be fake. And families of the Trio killed rejected the forces’ claims. However, forces categorically said, they eliminated three militants in Lawaypora gunfight which locals, families, social media users rejected too.
Speaking on the Srinagar Gunfight, General Officer Commanding (GoC) Kilo Force. H.S. Sahi, said, “We had been getting inputs about militant movement on the national highway. The operation was launched last evening after Getting inputs that militants were inside a house close to the national highway. They were asked to surrender, however, they responded with firing and the operation was suspended for the night,” he said.
Forgotten blood clots stirred with Shopian encounter
The family and the relatives of the three youth have been alleging that the encounter was staged, if their claims prove true, will evoke painful memories of fake encounters ub the past like Pathribal incident of March 2000 where five civilians from Anantnag were killed by Indian security forces and passed off as ‘Foreign militants.
On the intervening night of August 3 and 4, 1998, 19 people were killed allegedly by security forces in their homes in Salian village of Poonch district in Jammu region. In November 2012, HC ordered a re-investigation of the case by the CBI when the state government informed the court that the case had been closed but it failed to produce the closure report before the court.
In this massacre, the bodies were horribly mutilated, and in one case gruesomely decapitated with axes and sharp instruments. The official accounts such as FIR & RTI attribute the collateral damage to an “encounter” with or an attack by foreign militants. The survivors of the Sailan massacre, however, say that there were no militants involved.
The state Human Rights Commission inquiry, with all its inaccuracies and lacunas, mentions unnamed security forces and special police officers as responsible for the crime.
The Pathribal fake encounter of 2000
In a fake encounter, Indian security forces On 25th March 2000, carried out an operation to take down five “foreign militants” in the forests of Pathribal in Anantnag, Jammu and Kashmir. The army claimed the slain men were responsible for shooting 36 Sikh men five days before, on 20th March 2000, in the incident now known as Chithi-Singh pora massacre.
It later turned out that the five men were actually residents of villages around Pathribal, who had been abducted by army and police in a couple of days before the encounter. When civilians came out on the streets to protest the extrajudicial killings, they were met by open firing by personnel from the CRPF and SOF in Brakpora, with another eight people losing their lives.
In all, 49 civilians were killed in a matter of 15 days. Several pieces of incriminating evidence and a damning CBI investigation later, the army still stands shielded by the state machinery. Pathribal fake encounter is perhaps the best example to illustrate the kind of impunity that is enjoyed by the army in “disturbed” areas of the country. It also shows the perils of employing a force meant to deal with external security threats against citizens of their own country.
Despite heaps of evidence against certain members of the armed forces, and a CBI investigation clearly declaring the army to be guilty, the laws defined by Armed Forces Special Powers Act, Army Act, and Army Rules are such that they allow the army to walk away scot-free.
Political Leaders Demand Probe
Nazir Masoodi, the parliamentarian for South Kashmir has written to the Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha asking him to conduct an “Impartial probe” into the incident, Mohammed Yusuf Tarigami said that the encounter should be thoroughly investigated.
The former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti described the allegation of a fake encounter as “worrying”.
She said in the past few months after the shopian fake encounter, other families too in J&K have alleged that Their sons were innocent and killed in staged encounters. “Authorities Need to come clean on this,” she said. On Twitter.
The Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said, “Let me tell you Jammu and Kashmir is a very sensitive union territory. I have noted all versions including that of forces and families
of slain Trio. “I will come up with the facts before you at an appropriate time, “ he said.
The delay in probes, investigations, autopsy reports, leads to anger among the Kashmiris and furthering the anger of Kashmiris in the judicial system of Government.