Shopian Fake Encounter: What Happened & What It Led To
On 18 July 2020, the Army’s 62 Rashtriya Rifles claimed to have killed “three unidentified Al-Badr militants in Amshipora, Shopian in south Kashmir”, and the bodies were buried based on established protocols.
The police statement for this also claimed that during the search operation, militants fired upon the Army and the encounter started with police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) also taking part in the operation.
Only a few days later, three families in Dhar Sakri village in Rajouri, Jammu, complained that those killed were innocent – that they were three cousins – Imtiyaz Ahmad (26), Abrar Ahmad (18) and Mohd Ibrar (21) – who had travelled to Shopian to work as labourers in orchards.
The army added that the “competent disciplinary authority has directed initiation of disciplinary proceedings under the Army Act against those found prima-facie answerable.”
Two months after the fake encounter, the Jammu & Kashmir Police, in September 2020, said that the DNA samples of the three had matched with their family members in Rajouri.