FAKE ENCOUNTER BUSTED, 3 ARRESTED

Srinagar Police claimed to have cracked a fake encounter case and arrested three persons: a jawan of the Territorial Army, a counter-insurgent and a former special police officer who had lured three young men from their Nadihal village in Baramulla to Army’s 4 Rajputana camp at Kalaroos, from where they were ferried to the LoC and killed in a staged encounter at Sona Pindi. When the bodies of the three were exhumed, almost a month after the Army had claimed to have killed them in an encounter on the Line of Control in Machil sector, it was established that they were not militants, but civilians who were lured to an Army camp and then killed in a staged encounter only to secure cash award. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said this was a very serious case and his government would not allow the culprits to go scot-free. He has also promised to initiate an enquiry into the said fake encounter.