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After Poonch ambush: ‘Custodial deaths’: Brigadier among 3 officers shifted
Amid Thursday’s terror ambush and Friday’s “custodial deaths” of three civilians in an army camp of 48 RR, a brigadier and two officers have been shifted from Poonch. The three men were among nine picked up by the army on Friday morning around 9.30 am from Topa Peer village for questioning.
Amid Thursday’s terror ambush and Friday’s “custodial deaths” of three civilians in an army camp of 48 RR, a brigadier and two officers have been shifted from Poonch.
The three men were among nine picked up by the army on Friday morning around 9.30 am from Topa Peer village for questioning.
“While a court of inquiry stands instituted, Army has shifted the three officers that include a brigadier, a colonel and a lieutenant colonel from Poonch”, said intelligence sources.
The GOC of the Nagrota-based White Knight Corps, (16 Corps), Lt Gen Sandeep Jain will be completing his tenure on January 1.
The army on Saturday said it stands committed to extending “full support and cooperation” in the conduct of the investigation.
The mobile internet services in the two districts of Rajouri and Poonch have remained suspended since Friday.
The People’s Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF), an offshoot of the Jaish-e-Mohammed, has claimed responsibility for the attack. The offshoot had also shared pictures from the attack site on social media, which showed sophisticated US-made M4 carbine assault rifles.
Families demand names of 48 RR officers, men in FIR
Mohammad Sadeeq, Panch of Topi Peer village and uncle of one of the three deceased, Mohammad Showkat said, “The FIR hasn’t named any accused. The officers and men of 48 RR committed these murders. We want their officers, including the company commander, to be named in the FIR,”
Sadeeq even said that he knew the names of three army men, who on Friday morning had taken away the nine youth from the village.
“They are Jaggi, Ganesh and Mahi. May be their names are not real, but they were called by these names in this area. Then, there were three police constables, who were present at the time of torture. They were constables Rafiq, Rasheed and Mustafa. They kept quiet to the third-degree torture. We also want them to be booked in the FIR because they didn’t inform senior officials,” said Sadeeq.
He also stressed upon including section 307 and 320-B in the FIR, if the government intended to deliver justice to the victims.
Deceased Showkat’s cousin, Javed Ahmed said, aggrieved families want to know against whom the FIR has been lodged. “An open FIR is a mere eyewash,” he said.
Javed recalled how in one of the two video clips the man pleading for his life while undergoing third degree torture and merciless assault by some men in uniform was his cousin Showkat.
“At least company commander of 48 RR should have been named in the FIR,” he asserted. The families were yet to get post-mortem reports of their kith.
