Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir): A day after an armed forces tribunal suspended the life sentence of and granted bail to an Army captain found guilty of killing youth in a staged encounter in south Kashmir's Shopian district in July 2020, mainstream parties in Kashmir on Tuesday flayed the decision. Questioning the move by the Armed Forces Tribunal to let off the captain, former Chief Minister and NC Vice President Omar Abdullah asked “Why are we reminded time and again by the Centre that our blood is cheap ?”.
“That there is no value of our blood. When our people are killed, nobody cares,” Omar said while addressing a NC workers meeting in north Kashmir. He said that he was “surprised” over the Armed Forces tribunal suspending the life sentence of the Army captain Bhupinder Singh in the Amshipora fake encounter case.
“The Army officer who got the three youth from Rajouri murdered in a fake encounter in Shopian, was sentenced to life, not by the court, but the Army's court martial. Yesterday, he has been let free,” Omar said. “Our people who are languishing in jails, do not get bail, but they do not care. Here an army officer who was found guilty has been set free. That is why I say that the Centre reminds us time and again that our blood has no value and our emotions do not matter,” he added.
Also read: Amshipora fake encounter case: Army captain's life sentence suspended, granted conditional bail
People's Democratic Party President Mehbooba Mufti too resented the Armed Forces Tribunal giving bail to the convicted captain in the fake encounter case. “Just spoke with the father of the innocent civilian killed in the fake Amshipora encounter . He is utterly devastated by the Army Tribunal’s decision to revoke the life sentence judgement given to the Captain , who himself admitted to the crime . Raises serious questions on the sanctity of the judicial process,” she said in a post on X.
On Monday, the armed forces tribunal granted conditional bail to Captain Bhoopendra Singh and directed him to appear before its principal registrar on the first Monday of every month starting from January next year in the Amshipora fake encounter case. The fake encounter dates back to July 18, 2020 when the security forces killed three youth of Rajouri district-Imtiyaz Ahmed, Abrar Ahmed and Mohammed Ibrar by branding them as terrorists.
