Army kills 3 more civilians in Kashmir

DANISH ZARGAR
Yet another chapter of killing innocent Kashmiris was written in the history of Kashmir’s movement for liberation from Indian occupation when the three youth were martyred in cold blood by the Indian Army’s counter insurgency wing, Rashtriys Rifles, in Bomai, Sopur in North Kashmir on Saturday, February 21, afternoon.
The murder of three, identified as Muhammad Amin Tantray son of Muhammad Shaban of Bomai and Javid Ahmad Dar son of Muhammad Ismail of Muslim Peer, Sopur and Firdous Ahmad Khwaja son of Abdul Ghaffar, who scummbed to injuries in SK medical institute, was not the first and it may not be the last. It is just one more incident added to atrocities against Kashmiris which has left more than one lakh people dead in past several decades.
The incident was nothing but a cold blooded murder, for there was no bomb blast or stone pelting which army could claim provoked the RR to open fire. Yet they fired several rounds from their assault rifles and semi automatic machine guns.
The armed struggle which began in Kashmir in the early ‘90s is almost dead now. There are no bomb blasts, no suicidal attacks nothing but people are still being killed even when they voted in huge numbers in the recent assembly elections held only months ago. Indian think tanks, media were on the forefront claiming that the voter turn out was the victory of democracy. And perhaps it was, but where does the ethics and morals of ‘democracy’ go when the people are being killed even when they aren’t on the roads demanding azadi.
Witnesses said the incident occurred when an Army convoy of 22 Rashtriya Rifles was passing through the area near Bomai. “The convoy halted near a bund and without any provocation opened indiscriminate fire on a group of youth walking there. Two youth died on the spot,” eyewitnesses said.
Nothing has changed all these years. Like the past, Indian army has yet again declared the murder in Sopur as ‘causalities in cross firing’.
“The RR troopers were informed about terrorist in a bus. When they stopped the vehicle and asked men in the bus to lift their pherans (The traditional winter gown used in winters in Kashmir) they opened fire. And the cross-firing resulted in three civilian causalities,” the statement from the northern command of army read a day after the incident.
And also nothing has changed when it comes to calling an inquiry by the army into the incident.
In a state where even thieves aren’t brought to book, Police have registered an FIR against the army into the incident.
The deputy commissioner, Varmul, Baseer Ahmad Khan, said a magisterial inquiry had been ordered into the incident. “SDM Sopur has been appointed as inquiry officer. Law will take its own course,” Khan said
It would be just one more FIR added to the police register where thousands of FIRs against army are already longing for the culprits to be brought to justice.
May be yes there will be investigations, but then in a state where crime is mightier than law who will book whom.
And then if, supposing, the law gets mightier than crime this time can the three be brought to life? More importantly can the killings be stopped in future?