‘LeT militant killed in 2013 Shopian firing’

A commission of enquiry, headed by a former judge of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, M.L. Kaul, has established the that Lashkar-e-Taiba militant Abdullah Haroon was among four persons killed in the Central Reserve Police Force [CRPF] firing at a paramilitary camp at Gagran, in Kashmir’s Shopian district, on September 7, 2013.

Four persons, including an unidentified youth, were killed and a civilian injured during the CRPF firing. The CRPF fired on the men on two motorcycles on a day of extraordinary security arrangements for Zubin Mehta’s concert at the Mughal garden Shalimar. Even as the CRPF claimed to have killed “four militants during an attack” and residents demanded a judicial enquiry, observing shutdown and clashing with the police for several days, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah ordered an enquiry by the retired High Court judge.

On Wednesday, Mr. Kaul is understood to have submitted his report to the Chief Minister’s Secretariat. Sources disclosed to

The Hindu that Principal Secretary (Home) Suresh Kumar will forward the report to the Law Department recommending Cabinet approval within a day. It will be released to the public on Monday. According to sources, the enquiry has established that the unidentified person was Pakistani militant Abdullah Haroon. The enquiry has indicted two CRPF men for “excessive use of force” that killed the three local civilians. Sources said that the enquiry has recommended criminal prosecution of the two accused personnel.

Deputy Inspector General of Police for South Kashmir Vijay Kumar said the investigation into the FIR was still under way. He said that the investigators too had established Haroon’s presence on the basis of substantial evidence including a Pakistani SIM card, a diary and a cell phone containing a video clip of the two guns snatched away by the LeT militants from the two policemen attacked earlier in Arwani and Avnera.