The men – workers Abrar Ahmad Khan, Imtiyaz Ahmad and Abrar Ahmad Yousuf, who had left their homes to look for work – were killed in an army operation in July. Local police found pistols and live cartridges from the scene, and a special investigation unit said the military had initially portrayed the victims as “militants.”
In a statement Sunday, police accused Captain Bhoopendra Singh and another of kidnapping and killing the men, saying they staged the killings as a fake military encounter and “ planted illegally obtained weapons and materials on their dead bodies after they had stolen their identity. and labeled them as hardcore terrorists. ”
Police added that Singh had “knowingly and purposefully” chosen not to follow standard Kashmiri procedures.
The Indian Army has not specified whether the captain will be tried under civilian jurisdiction or in a military court. Under an emergency law enacted in Jammu and Kashmir since 1990, Indian army soldiers cannot be tried in civilian courts under ordinary jurisdiction without the permission of the federal government.
However, prosecution of army officers for alleged crimes and abuses is rare, and similar claims of staged incidents have been made in the past, making the investigation and allegations all the more unusual.