SRINAGAR, July 30: Police have arrested two people in connection with the death of a 20-year-old youth in Army firing, which triggered massive protests by people in North Kashmir who blamed soldiers for allegedly torturing him before shooting him to death.
“We have arrested two persons Muhammad Ramzan Bhat alias Rameez and Nazir Ahmed Bhat. They along with an Army officer of 27-RR are being interrogated,” a police officer told a local newspaper Greater Kashmir.
Hilal Ahmed Dar of Aloosa village, more than 55 km from capital srinagar, was found dead with bullets in his body at nearby Ashtengoo Naar area on Wednesday morning.
The Police offer said that prima facie the case looked like a “planned killing for monetary benefit” as one of the arrested persons is an Army informer and a weapon has been seized from the house of the other.
Bandipora district shut for four days over the incident while life in the entire Kashmir valley was disrupted on Saturday over a call by senior separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani to protests the incident.
Locals and relatives of the youth claim he was innocent and had only left home for late-night Ramadhan prayers when he was killed “in cold blood” by army soldiers. They said Dar sported long locks of hair and a beard and could have easily been “mistaken for a militant”.
However, the police officer said, the main accused Muhammad Ramzan Bhat, struck a deal with 27-RR that he would help them in trapping a militant allegedly in exchange for money and had ever since been working on the plan. “Hilal would usually wear a turban and khan dress and that is how Bhat planned for the staged encounter,” the officer said.
Police had approached the Army’s top brass for handing over its men involved in the encounter so that they could be questioned at length also, PTI reported.
The officer privy to investigation said that Bhat conceded to having convinced the youth to meet militants, something which took him four months to do.
“On July 24 (Tuesday) Bhat called Hilal and told him that a meeting has been fixed during night and that he should come alone. On the same evening Bhat informed 27-RR camp that a militant will come to Ashtengoo from Aloosa and that they could lay an ambush,” he said.
“The next day Bhat went to 27-RR camp to seek shelter. However, Army refused to allow him inside and he was left with no other choice than to surrender before the Police,” he said.
Defence Minister, A.K. Antony ordered probe into the incident overruling the Army who had reiterated that the youth was a militant and that they killed him when he walked into an ambush and “fired at them when challenged”.
