Indian Army Massacre Charge Probed

06/10/2005| IslamWeb

The Indian army is probing charges that a group of soldiers butchered four civilians in Kashmir and presented them as guerillas in the hope of securing military awards, an official said yesterday. Police have also joined the investigation into the allegations that a colonel, a major and 10 troopers gunned down the four men in the northern Kashmiri village of Devar on April 20, 2004 and claimed they were insurgents killed in a shootout.

The probe was launched after the father of one of the slain men, Madan Lal, said he had received an anonymous letter alleging the four were killed by the 12 alleged glory-hunters.

"The soldiers lured the four men to a village with promises of jobs as porters and then staged the gunbattle, killing them all," said police officer Sunil Dutt from the northern Kupwara district, citing Lal's complaint.

Lal said the soldiers drove their four intended victims from Jammu to Devar near Kupwara, a distance of 300km, and then shot them.

The 12 suspects including the two officers belong to the counter-insurgency Rashtriya Rifles, said Dutt.

The three other slain men have not been named by police.

The scandal has erupted less than a year after the army court-martialled a commander for reporting a fantasy warfare involving imaginary "enemy kills" in Kashmir to bag battle honours in late 2004.

The army, which frequently faces charges of rights abuses in turbulent Kashmir, declined to comment on the case. Kashmir police inspector-general Javed Makhdoomi confirmed the inquiry but declined further comment.

Meanwhile, at least 10 people were killed in separate clashes across the state and 13 commuters were wounded in a grenade blast at a bus stand, police said yesterday.

The 13 were wounded when unidentified assailants hurled a hand grenade at a crowded bus stand late yesterday in the southern town of Anantnag, 55km from Srinagar, police said.

Indian troops launched a hunt for the attackers and rushed the injured to hospitals, a police officer said, adding that three of the victims were in critical condition.

Elsewhere, troops killed four suspected Kashmiri armed men in separate gunbattles earlier yesterday near the Line of Control.

PHOTO CAPTION

Indian soldier in Kashmir. (AFP)