SRINAGAR, India, 10 March 2007 — Authorities arrested a policeman and a civilian who allegedly took part in the killing of a man in Indian-controlled Kashmir and claimed he was a militant to collect reward money.
The arrests on Thursday were the latest detentions in connection with a spreading scandal over police and soldiers allegedly staging fake gunbattles with civilians, and then claiming the people killed were militants to earn rewards and gain promotions. “The special investigation team arrested a police constable and a cleric for their alleged involvement in the abduction and murder of a civilian,” said Farooq Ahmed, the police officer heading the investigations.
Tariq Lone, the police officer, is alleged to have taken part in the killing of Showkat Ahmed Kataria, a 28-year-old imam of a mosque in Srinagar, the main city in India’s Jammu and Kashmir state. The arrested civilian, Mohammed Ashraf, is suspected of helping abduct Kataria, Ahmed said.
Kataria was reportedly picked up by the police’s special operations squad in October and shot dead at Ajas, 45 km northeast of Srinagar. At the time, police identified Kataria as an unidentified Pakistani activist of Lashkar-e-Taiba, one of the main groups fighting Indian rule in Kashmir. Authorities reopened the case after holes appeared in the police story and Kataria’s body was exhumed. DNA tests confirmed his identity.
