SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Government investigators on Saturday exhumed the bodies of three young men in disputed Kashmir, two weeks after the Indian military in a rare admission said its soldiers exceeded their legal powers in killing the men they described as Pakistani terrorists.
A team of police and medical officials exhumed the bodies of three men in western Baramulla district and handed them over to their families for burial at their remote village in southern Rajouri district, police said.
Mohammed Yousuf, the father of one of the victims, said the three were “murdered in cold blood.”
“Our sons have been proved innocent and we are now waiting for justice,” Yousuf said. “The killers must face justice.”
The Indian army on July 18 said its soldiers killed three “unidentified Pakistani terrorists” in Kashmir's southern Shopian area. Police, who usually participate in counterinsurgency operations, said the July 18 encounter was a solo operation by the army. Police, however, later buried the bodies in a remote cemetery in Baramulla.
About a month later, three families in Rajouri identified the victims as their missing relatives using photographs of the bodies that circulated on social media. The families filed a complaint with police, accusing soldiers of killing their relatives in a staged gunbattle.
The families said the three men went to Shopian to work as laborers and were last heard from on July 17.
Police ordered an investigation, the results of which have yet to be released.
On Sept. 18, the Indian military admitted wrongdoing and said its internal probe identified the three men killed as local residents, without explaining how the military had identified them. It also said an army investigation showed the soldiers had exceeded the powers granted to them under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.
The act gives the Indian military in Kashmir sweeping powers to search, seize and even shoot suspects on sight without fear of prosecution. Under the act, local authorities need federal approval to prosecute army or paramilitary soldiers in civilian courts.
news.yahoo.com
A team of police and medical officials exhumed the bodies of three men in western Baramulla district and handed them over to their families for burial at their remote village in southern Rajouri district, police said.
Mohammed Yousuf, the father of one of the victims, said the three were “murdered in cold blood.”
“Our sons have been proved innocent and we are now waiting for justice,” Yousuf said. “The killers must face justice.”
The Indian army on July 18 said its soldiers killed three “unidentified Pakistani terrorists” in Kashmir's southern Shopian area. Police, who usually participate in counterinsurgency operations, said the July 18 encounter was a solo operation by the army. Police, however, later buried the bodies in a remote cemetery in Baramulla.
About a month later, three families in Rajouri identified the victims as their missing relatives using photographs of the bodies that circulated on social media. The families filed a complaint with police, accusing soldiers of killing their relatives in a staged gunbattle.
The families said the three men went to Shopian to work as laborers and were last heard from on July 17.
Police ordered an investigation, the results of which have yet to be released.
On Sept. 18, the Indian military admitted wrongdoing and said its internal probe identified the three men killed as local residents, without explaining how the military had identified them. It also said an army investigation showed the soldiers had exceeded the powers granted to them under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.
The act gives the Indian military in Kashmir sweeping powers to search, seize and even shoot suspects on sight without fear of prosecution. Under the act, local authorities need federal approval to prosecute army or paramilitary soldiers in civilian courts.
Police exhume bodies of 3 Kashmir men killed by Indian army
Government investigators on Saturday exhumed the bodies of three young men in disputed Kashmir, two weeks after the Indian military in a rare admission said its soldiers exceeded their legal powers in killing the men they described as Pakistani terrorists. A team of police and medical officials...
rime Minister Raja Muhammad Farooq Haider Khan said that state of the art hospital will be set up at tehsil headquarter Chakkar to provide better health facilities to the people of the area.
