‘Fake’ encounter: Families await justice
Shariq Majeed
Tribune News Service

Rajouri, March 31
More than a decade after three persons were allegedly gunned down by the troops in an encounter, the family members of the victims are awaiting with hope to get justice. Three persons were allegedly killed by the Army troops in an encounter in the Peer Badeswar area here in early 1997.

Muhammad Yousuf, son of Raj Muhammad, Abdul Aziz, son of Sher Muhammad and Abdul Aziz, son of Muhammad Hussain (All from Kotdhara), were allegedly killed by the troops of the 18 Dogra in an encounter and were buried in a pit some where near the Army camp in the Peer Badeswar area near LoC.

After disclosure of the infamous fake killings in Ganderbal, where body of Abdul Rehman Paddar was exhumed for a DNA test, families of these victims, too, were pressing hard to get the bodies of their members exhumed for test to ascertain whether the persons buried were their members.

The families of the three men waged a grim battle for a decade, to even get a missing report registered. The fight for justice by the family members of the victims saw the court interventions too, but the police continued to slumber over what has been termed by the State Human Rights Commission as a gross violation of the Human Rights.

The police was reluctant to take on the Army and attempted to dissuade them from not filing a report, they alleged. Baggo Begum, wife of one of the victims, Muhammad Yousuf, remembers how they visited the police station in Rajouri only to be abused by the police personnel.

"However, we did not give up and continued to go to the police station. We were often terrorised by the Army personnel in the plain clothes on the way", she said.

Slowly, the stress began to take a toll on her two young sons. "Unable to comprehend the disappearance of their father, my sons suffered so much that they have become abnormal in their behaviour,'' Baggo said. "However, despite so many ups and downs in the case, we are still hoping that justice will finally be done and the accused Army personnel would be booked by the law".

Muhammad Farooq, brother of Abdul Aziz, who was allegedly killed in an encounter, said he read a news item regarding the Ganderbal fake encounter in 2007, which triggered hope. "The very next day, we filed an application in the deputy commissioner's office for exhumation of the bodies, since a source told us that, after killing our relatives, the Army had buried them in pits near Kancha post in the Peer Badeswar area."

The DC referred the case to SSP Farooq Khan, who, after much dilly-dallying, asked the SHO to register a missing persons report. "That was March 29, 2007, a decade after the three men were done away with,'' he said.

With a "young and dynamic" Chief Minister at the helm of the affairs, the families are hoping that they will get justice from the system. Repeated attempts to get the comments of the senior police officers on the case did not materialize, as they refused to comment on the issue.

Meanwhile, commenting on the allegations that the Army killed three persons in an encounter in the Peer Badeswar area in 1997, a defence spokesperson told The Tribune that "These are just allegations. There is no record of such a case with the Army".