The Army on Sunday ordered a high-level inquiry into the ‘fake encounter' in the Machil sector of Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir on April 30, in which three youths from Rafiabad were killed.
A Major has been named in the police report, informed sources said.
A defence spokesman said the Army ordered the probe after receiving a preliminary report from the police on Saturday.
“The inquiry will cover all the allegations based on the report submitted by the police. We will judiciously expedite the proceedings as promised. The only delay we foresee is the recalling of the witnesses who are involved in the incident, as the unit was de-inducted after it completed its mandated tenure. However, efforts to get them back have already been initiated,” he said.
The sources said the report indicted Major Bhupinder Singh of 4 Rajput and established prima facie his involvement in the killing of the youths.
Three persons, including a special police officer and a Territorial Army man arrested by the police, admitted to their involvement in the killing of the youths, who turned out to be civilians, and not militants as claimed by the Army.
The arrested persons also told the interrogators that Major Singh was involved in the encounter and paid them Rs. 50,000 each for getting civilians who could be shown as militants, the sources said.
The Army and the police were also probing how officers of 4 Rajput got the Pakistani currency they produced to support their claim of an encounter with ‘militants' on the LoC, the sources added.
Hostile crowd
PTI reports:
A condolence meeting of People's Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti at Rafiabad had to be cancelled after people started shouting anti-PDP slogans. They said fake encounters and custodial killings took place during the PDP regime too.