SRINAGAR, India, 5 October 2005 — Jammu and Kashmir police have filed a case of kidnapping and murder against 10 Indian Army personnel, including two officers, for allegedly killing four Hindu laborers after framing them as “foreign terrorists” in order to claim gallantry awards.
The case has been filed in the Lalpora police station of Kupwara district against Col. Rahul Pandey, Maj. Chahal and eight soldiers of 18 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) battalion that was deployed to combat insurgency in the border district early last year.
The case has been lodged on the complaint of Madan Lal, a resident of Jammu who identified one of the four slain “terrorists” in a photo as his son Bhushan Kumar. Bhushan was one of the three brought from Jammu by the suspects with the promising of employment as porters in their unit.
During the last parliamentary election held here in April 2004, the 18 Rashtriya Rifles had claimed having killed four foreign terrorists in the Lolab village of Kupwara district after a “fierce encounter” on April 20, 2004. While the bodies of two killed “terrorists” were buried by the army, two defaced bodies were handed over to the Lalpora police station for burial.
In June this year, the family of one of the four victims received an anonymous letter from a soldier alleging that officers and troops of 18 Rashtriya Rifles had killed four people identified as Ram Lal, Satpal, Bhushan Kumar (all from Jammu) and Ashok Kumar of Pathankote in Punjab. They were killed in cold blood and weapons were planted on their bodies, the letter said.
The letter alleged that the “fierce gunbattle was staged to get recognition for gallantry.”
Army officers had no immediate comment on the police investigation. But an army officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said the army was aware of the allegations and had launched its own investigation.
The inquiry headed by a brigadier has been completed and he has met the relatives of the four victims. He is scheduled to submit his report to his seniors this week.
Kashmir’s police inspector general, Javed Makhdoomi, said a police investigation into the allegations had begun and “things will become clear once the autopsy reports come in.”
Madan Lal, the bereaved father, said he had sent copies of the letter to Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Gen. J.J. Singh, the Indian army chief.
Indian security forces have often been accused of committing human rights abuses in their fight against militants who have been battling to wrest Indian Kashmir from New Delhi since 1989. More than 66,000 people have been killed during the conflict.
