Srinagar: The Northern Army command on Monday confirmed that the military court has awarded life sentence to two officers and four jawans for the 2010 Machil fake encounter case in Jammu and Kashmir.
General Officer Commanding in Chief (GOC-in-C), Northern Command lieutenant general DS Hooda confirmed the sentence of a summary general court martial in the Machil encounter case. The convicted men include a colonel-rank officer.
The court found that on April 30, three Kashmiri labourers (Shahzad Ahmad Khan, Mohammad Shafi Lone, Riyaz Ahmad Lone) were lured to Kupwara district with promises of jobs and money, where they were killed in a staged encounter near the border with Pakistan.
The army described them as Pakistani militants trying to sneak in from the Machil sector along the Line of Control.
The encounter sparked widespread protests in Kashmir at the time, leading to 120 deaths in battles between demonstrators and security forces. They also led to calls for scrapping the contentious AFSPA, which gives sweeping powers to army search, arrest, and shoot people.
The six Army personnel include, Col Dinesh Pathania, who was the commanding officer, Captain Opindra, Havaldar Devender Kumar, Lance Naik Lakhmi, Lance Naik Arun Kumar and rifleman Abbas Hussain were held guilty by the court.
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