SRINAGAR: Army chief General Bikram Singh got some breather on Tuesday after Jammu and Kashmir high court certified that the 2001 Janglat Mandi gun-battle was “not a fake encounter”.
The court however asked the SSP Anantnag to entrust the matter to gazetted officer for necessary enquiry (to determine whether one of the persons slain in the encounter is foreign militant Muteen Chacha or not).
While disposing off the writ petition filed by Zaitooni and her daughter, who had claimed that their son/ brother Abdullah Bhat was branded foreign militant and killed by the security forces, a single judge bench of Justice Hasnain Masoodi said the occurrence is not a fake encounter.
“This apart the very fact that a senior army officer was killed and commander sector one Rashtriya Riffles (Bikram Singh who was then brigadier) was amongst injured may not lend support to the assertion that the encounter was fake or stage managed.
“In the above background and in view of the stand taken the occurrence is not a fake encounter in the sense the expression is used in common parlance or in the context of law and order situation”, Justice Masoodi said in his 33-page order.
Justice Masoodi also directed the SSP to get the matter enquired by gazetted officer as directed by the DIG south Kashmir range.
“For the reasons discussed, the writ petition is disposed of with a direction to senior superintendent of police, Anantnag to entrust the matter as directed by DIG south Kashmir on August 9, 2011 to a gazetted officer for necessary inquiry in terms of said order with reasonable dispatch unmindful and influenced by the observations made herein and submit his report to the DIG for further necessary action…” the judge said.
“The question of compensation if any to the petitioners would obviously hinge on outcome of such inquiry”.
Zaitooni in her writ petition filed in 2011, 10 years after the gun battle, prayed for constituting a SIT to investigate the Janglat Mandi since her son was branded foreign militant Ghulam Mohi-ud-din alias Muteen Chacha. The petitioners had prayed for identifying the grave and conducting of DNA of the deceased. Plus they had sought Rs 60 lakh compensation.
The encounter had taken place on March 1 2001 when an army convey was ambushed at Jangat Mandi Anantnag in which two army men including Col JP Janu and Riffle man Ganesh Kumar and two civilians Mohammad Shafi Shah and Abdul Ahad Sheikh got killed.
General Bikram Singh, who was then a brigadier commanding sector-I RR, and two other army personnel sustained injuries. A third individual was also killed who police claimed was Mutteen Chacha, a Pakistani militant of Hizbul Mujahidin slain in retaliatory fire.
Both defence Counsel Zaffar Qureshi and centre’s lawyer Karnail Singh expressed satisfaction over the judgment. “I am satisfied that after 11 years the matter has to be investigated (by gazetted officer to determine whether the third person killed in the encounter was a civilian or Muteen Chacha)”, said Qureshi.
Singh noted that he is satisfied that the court has given a verdict that it was not a fake encounter.“Petitioner first said it was a fake encounter then they took a U turn. We are satisfied that the judgment has confirmed there was encounter”, he said.
(DNA)
