SRINAGAR, 24 February 2007 — DNA testing has proved that a body claimed to be that of a militant killed by security forces in Indian Kashmir was that of an innocent Muslim cleric, police said yesterday. It was the second time in as many days that police admitted civilians had been killed in “fake encounters” or staged executions. The cases have sparked major protests in Kashmir after years of repeated charges by human rights groups that security forces were executing civilians not involved in the uprising.
DNA tests conducted on the body matched with the relatives of Moulvi Shaukat Kataria who went missing in the summer capital Srinagar last October, police said.
On Thursday, it was announced that DNA tests conducted on the body of another alleged militant who security forces claimed was killed in a gunbattle in December last year matched with the relatives of a small-town carpenter called Abdul Rahman Padroo.
“The DNA samples of Abdul Rehman Padroo and Moulvi Shaukat Kataria have tested positive with the samples of their relatives removing all doubts about their identity as locals. The corroborative evidence thrown up by the DNA tests is irrefutable and we shall be presenting the charge-sheet against the accused in the court of law shortly,” said a senior police officer here.
Farooq Ahmad, the deputy inspector general of police who heads the special investigating team probing the disappearance and subsequent murders of the five civilians said, “The DNA results in case of three other victims would be available within a fortnight.”
Moulvi Shaukat Kataria, son of Noor Alam Kataria, belonged to Nowkote village near Banihal, a town on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway in the Jammu region. Kataria went missing from the downtown Zadibal locality of Srinagar city where he was performing the duties of an imam (preacher who conducts the daily Muslim prayers) on Oct. 4 last year.
“He was killed as a foreign militant in a fake encounter in Bazipora (Ajas) village of Ganderbal within four hours of his disappearance,” a police officer said here. It must be recalled that the Ganderbal police chief, H.R. Parihar and his deputy Bahadur Ram and five other junior level members have been arrested in connection with the infamous fake encounters racket that surfacedhere following the police investigations into the disappearance of Padroo.
