Indian troops have mercilessly killed 7 innocent unarmed Kashmiris in fake encounters carried out in different parts of the Indian Illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
An analytical report released maintained that extrajudicial killings and fake encounters have become a regular feature of Indian troops in IIOJK.
The report said, “Unarmed Kashmiri youth are being mercilessly killed by Indian troops in IIOJK. 7 Kashmiri youth were killed in the last 3 days in a staged cordon and search operations across IIOJK.
The family members of the deceased Imtiaz Ahmad Dar, who is martyred by the troops in Bandipora on Monday, said that Imtiaz was killed in a fake encounter.”
A staged encounter
A victim’s cousin Ishfaq Ahmad Khan said that Dar was working with him in the paddy fields on Monday when in the afternoon he received a call from the Indian Army, asking him to immediately report to them. He said that after the call, Dar immediately changed his work clothes and left to report to the army.
He added that the moment Dar came out of the paddy field and moved towards the street, they saw the army vehicles heading in the same direction. Ishfaq further said that later in the day, they came to know that he was killed in a gunfight, which was a fake encounter.
Earlier fake encounters
The report cited the incidents of Pathribal fake encounter of 2000 and Machil fake encounter of 2010. On 25 May 2000, the Indian Army had claimed the killing of five militants in the Pathribal area of Islamabad district involved in the massacre of dozens of Sikhs in the Chattisinghpora area of the same district a few days ago. At least 35 Sikhs were killed on 20 May 2000 on the eve of the then US President, Bill Clinton’s visit to India.
However, later it came to the fore that those killed by the Indian Army at Pathribal were local civilians. The investigation into the Chattisinghpora incident also revealed that the massacre was carried out by the army to defame the Kashmir freedom movement.
Indian troops killed three youth after luring them for jobs in the Machil area of Kupwara district in April 2010. The troops were also killed during fake encounters with three laborers hailing from the Rajouri district of Jammu in the Amshipora area of Shopian in July 2020 and three other civilians in the Lawaypora area of Srinagar in December, last year.
The report pointed out that India has turned IIOJK into a killing field as 95,875 Kashmiris have been killed by Indian bullets from January 1989 till September 2021.
Hindutva-inspired BJP leaders and the Modi-led Indian regime want to subdue the Kashmiri people by killing youth in fake encounters. “Modi must remember it can’t break the Kashmiris’ will by resorting to extra-judicial killings.”
The report maintained that the killing of Kashmiri youth in fake encounters is a blatant violation of the UN Charter. It stipulated that the world must come forward to stop India’s brutal campaign of repression in IIOJK and hold New Delhi accountable for its brutalities in the occupied territory.
