The Hindu : 'Bandipora encounter genuine'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 14, 2004

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'Bandipora encounter genuine'

By Praveen Swami

SRINAGAR, FEB. 13. Preliminary findings by officials investigating allegations of Army atrocities against civilians in northern Kashmir have borne out Army claims that the killings of six civilians in two separate incidents last week were not murders.

A high-level Government source told The Hindu that the killing of Mohammad Shafi Chechi, a resident of Chithibanday village near Bandipora, seemed to be the result of a genuine encounter. Investigators, he claimed, found no hard evidence to suggest that the subsequent killing of five other Chithibanday villagers was an extra-judicial execution by the Army, as politicians and local residents have alleged.

Chechi's body was identified by his relatives after it was exhumed on Thursday, sparking the latest in a string of charges that the Army had shot dead innocent civilians in the Bandipora area. A press release issued on behalf of the Army had earlier claimed Chechi was a Pakistani terrorist named Zia-ul-Haq, operating under the alias Sajjad Bhai. Tissue samples have now been sent for DNA testing, which will conclusively establish the identity of the body.

Police officials investigating the alleged extra-judicial execution, however, have told the Jammu and Kashmir Government that a fire-fight between troops and Mr. Chechi did take place on February 5. His body, they say, was brought to Chithibanday, where village residents were not able to conclusively identify him. Documents recovered from the body, along with a Kalashnikov rifle and wireless set, formed the basis of the Army's assertion that he was a Pakistani national.

According to investigators, Chechi left his home in Chithibanday to visit relatives on February 4. It was only three days ago, however, that Chechi's family filed a request for the body to be exhumed. No claim was earlier made by the family that he had been kidnapped by either soldiers or armed personnel of any kind. "It is possible," the Government official said, "that the family stayed silent at the time knowing Chechi was involved in terrorist activity, but now hopes to gain compensation by claiming he was an innocent civilian."

Investigators claim the Chechi family's course of action was provoked by compensation awarded to five civilians killed in an operation in the Datiwas forests above Chithibanday. The Army admits the five villagers were used as porters by the 10 Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry, and says that they died in an exchange of fire between terrorists and troops. The State Government and military have announced cash compensation for the victims, and the Army Chief, Nirmal Vij, promised on Wednesday that civilians would no longer be used as porters.

Villagers, however, allege that the Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry, along with the 10 Paracommando Regiment, executed the civilians in "cold blood" after an encounter which claimed the lives of three soldiers. Six terrorists also died in the fighting. Much of the evidence that the civilians were killed in cold blood rests on testimony by Mohammad Yusuf Bani, one of the porters used by the military. Mr. Bani told reporters he was forced into Army uniform along with the victims, ordered into the terrorist bunker at gunpoint, and then shot at point-blank range by soldiers.

Government officials investigating the case, however, insist Mr. Bani's version of events is not credible. "If the Army's intention was to kill innocent civilians and pretend they were terrorists," one police official told The Hindu , "they are hardly likely to have left people alive to tell the tale." The official said testimony by villagers that they stormed the bunker and stopped soldiers from destroying the bodies was "unbelievable."

Military officials complain that exaggerated or misleading charges on human rights abuses are too easily taken at face value by the media. In December 2003, two sisters, Nuzhat Ahmad and Zahida Ahmad, charged troops of the 34 Battalion of the Rashtriya Rifles with shooting them after they resisted attempts to arrest their brother. Subsequent investigation, however, established the shooting was carried out by the Lashkar-e-Taiba commander, Inayatullah Khan, who operated under the alias Bilal-e-Habshi. Both girls, officials claim, were told to lie about the incident or face reprisals.

Officials, however, concede that the widespread practice of using porters in combat roles meant that a Chithibanday-style disaster was waiting to happen. Dozens of ill-paid guides and porters have died in past operations, particularly in remote mountain areas. At the same time, one 15 Corps officer told The Hindu , "it is simply impossible to operate in the mountains without guides and porters. We need a more organised system in place to prevent tragedies of this kind from taking place again."

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