The Jammu and Kashmir government has ordered magisterial investigations into 30 gun battles in the State last year, following a directive from the Union Home Affairs Ministry to go into encounters for which policemen were recommended for gallantry awards.
“According to National Human Rights Commission guidelines, if anyone from the security forces is being recommended for a gallantry award, the encounter has to be probed by the district magistrate,” a senior official told The Hindu . “In fact, any gun battle in which someone is killed must be probed, but that does not happen here.”
Deputy Commissioner, Kupwara, Rajeev Kumar, who called for a probe into a 2014 encounter at Lolab, where seven alleged militants were killed, said: “They [NHRC] asked if the gun battle had been probed since the policemen had been nominated for awards. We found out that no probe had been conducted and so we ordered one.”
