CoI report on Shopian killings by Army encouraging, must ensure justice is not delayed

The Communist Party of India (M) on Saturday said the indictment of unnamed soldiers for killing three labourers from Rajouri on July 18 in South Kashmir's Shopian district is confirmation of a fake encounter.

The CPI(M) senior leader Mohammad Yousuf Targami in a statement here this afternoon said the Court of Inquiry (CoI) by the Army is encouraging and must ensure the justice does not get delayed under any pretext. The trio from Rajouri, who had come to Shopian to find some labour work were murdered in the name of encounter, he alleged and demanded the DNA sampling report should be confirmed at the earliest so that the probe is taken to its logical conclusion.

He said the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) through its general secretary Om Prakash Sharma had already moved an application before the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), seeking a probe into the Shopian fake encounter, which is under active consideration of the Commission.

“We urge the authorities to not only ensure that guilty in Shopian fake encounter cases are punished, but those who have not been punished so far in previous such cases are dealt according to law. There is a need to do transparent enquiries and the status reports of already announced enquiries should be made public”, Mr Tarigami said

The government should also punish those involved in the killing of Batmaloo woman and custodial killing in Sopore. Fake encounters and custodial killings are heinous criminal acts that have nothing to do with the larger operational purpose of security forces anywhere. Anybody breaking the law must be brought to the book, he demanded.

He said a narrative was created that if any action is taken against black-sheep and law-breakers within security forces, who commit such crimes, they will get demoralized. This is bizarre. A person even in uniform committing crime must be punished. Punishing the guilty will only demoralize black-sheep who break the law and it will help in restoring confidence among the large sections of the population.

Army spokesman last evening said that soldiers have exceeded their limits in Shopian where three persons were killed in an encounter in July.