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Journalism of Courage
The Jammu and Kashmir High Court Wednesday granted the Defence Ministry four more weeks to file its response to a plea seeking re-investigation into an alleged fake encounter.
Justice Hasnain Masoodi granted the request of the Defence Ministry,represented by counsel Karnail Singh Wazir,for more time to file response after it failed to keep the deadline that ended on Wednesday.
The Jammu and Kashmir government has already filed its response to the plea. Sources said the government,represented by Senior Additional Advocate General A R Magray,had objected to a re-probe.
The plea seeking re-investigation into the killing of Mohammad Abdullah Bhat at Janglat Mandi in south Kashmirs Anantnag was filed by his mother Zytoona Begum in October last year. In her petition,Begum had alleged that the Army killed her son in cold blood and passed him as top militant commander Mohidin Rabbani alias Mateen Chacha.
Begum said her family spent years searching for Abdullah after he went missing from Anantnag,where he worked as a labourer, only to learn that he had been killed in a fake encounter.
The Army,however,has maintained that the March 1,2001,encounter was not fake and that two of its men and two civilians were also killed. Armys Eastern Commander Lt General Bikram Singh,who was Brigade Commander of Rashtriya Rifles in south Kashmir at the time,was also injured in the alleged encounter,it has claimed.
