The shameful episode in North Kashmir, which led to a violent protest by local villagers at Rafiabad in Kupwara district over the weekend, is being coyly described as a “fake encounter”. In truth, the incident of a month ago, which came to light in the early part of May and whose contours took nearly three weeks to gain full exposure, ought to be categorised as a carefully planned murder of three innocent villagers. The ignominy is that the allegation of murder is being levelled at a major of the Indian Army. Until the charge is established through a process of inquiry, which to their credit the authorities have instituted with promptness, doubts may persist over the facts of the case that are said to constitute the allegation against the officer. However, it must be kept in view that the inquiry has been ordered following an official report, subsequent to an investigation, submitted by the Jammu and Kashmir police.
In brief, the story, as reported, is that the major lured his informers and their accomplices into getting hold of three local youths apparently to run a mission across the Line of Control to trap a group of Pakistani infiltrators who were about to launch a mission. In the event, the three men were simply shot dead in cold blood and Pakistani money and weapons planted on them to make the affair look genuine. That the major allegedly stage-managed the so-called encounter only a few days before he was to be posted out of the Valley suggests that his motive may have been to earn laurels and professional advancement. The government needs to take a careful look at the system of rewards for uniformed personnel posted in disturbed areas. A system that was meant to be an incentive has been abused over and over again in recent years and needs to be re-thought.
It was good to see defence minister A.K. Antony say that tough action would be taken against those found guilty. However, such statements are routine and do not any more constitute an assurance. While in the past departmental action has been taken against members of the security forces who are found to have infringed the law, there is no getting away from the fact that the sentence is death when a murder is judicially proved. Such a sentence has never been handed down to security personnel operating in areas, such as Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast, where the Armed Forces Special Powers Act is in operation. The time may have come to revisit the issue of the conduct of our uniformed services when they deal with ordinary citizens on an ordinary day in areas where such a draconian law is in force.
Not doing so takes away from the credibility of our democratic republic and hurts the prestige of India. The implementation of the AFSPA cannot be an excuse for anyone to misbehave with the local population, which typically suffers great trauma at every level as it is routinely caught between the forces of the State and foreign-fed insurgents. Our soldiers are present in Kashmir to deter the revanchist designs of Pakistan, not to ride roughshod over the people of the troubled region. Kashmir was in the throes of terrorist violence for a decade and a half, and it has taken great sagacity on the part of New Delhi to win back the support of the people who, at a political level, have come to cock a snook at the separatists. But all the goodwill earned evaporates in a flash when the security forces unleash callousness or brutality against the populace or simply show lack of regard for those they are there to protect.