Rs 2,000 daily: on this promise men shot in encounter went with Army

Rs 1.5 lakh in cash,two bottles of whiskey and two of beer it was with this that officials of 4 Rajputana Rifles allegedly hoped to cover their tracks in the 'fake encounter'.

Rs 1.5 lakh in cash,two bottles of whiskey and two of beer it was with this that officials of 4 Rajputana Rifles allegedly hoped to cover their tracks in the fake encounter on the Line of Control in Kashmir that has now led to the exhumation of three bodies.

Abbas Hussain Shah,a jawan with 161 Battalion of the Territorial Army in Baramulla,has told police interrogators that he,his brother who works for the police,an Army source and a counter-insurgent were offered the cash and liquor for arranging the three men,for what he says he believed to be a trip across the Line of Control to trap militants.

He has said the three Shahzad Ahmad Khan,Mohammad Shafi Lone and Riyaz Ahmad Lone went along happily,at the promise of earning Rs 2,000 per day working for the Army.

Pleading that I didnt do anything wrong,Shah has told the police that he was only following orders of my officers,specifically of Major Upender.

Following a probe report handed over by the Jammu and Kashmir Police on Sunday to 15 Corps commander Lt Gen N C Marwah,the Army has ordered a high-level inquiry into the case. The police probe accuses Major Upender and his team members,including two Subedar Majors and a Sepoy,of entering into a criminal conspiracy with locals of Rafiabad,including Shah,and kidnapping three youths on the pretext of providing them jobs.

Major sahib was G2 at Divisional headquarters at Baramulla where I first met him, Shah told interrogators. I arranged sources for him and I introduced Hameed (the Army source) to him. He (Major) was transferred but he kept in touch. He told me that he would talk to my current Major when he asked me to bring Hameed,Bashir (the counter-insurgent) and the three men to Kalaroos camp in Kupwara.

Based on the interrogation of Shah and Hameed,police believe that officers of the 4 Rajputana Battalion of the Army were in a hurry to stage the alleged fake encounter as the unit was being shifted out of the Valley within a week. The three men were killed in the intervening night of April 29 and 30.

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Shah said he came in touch with Major Upender after he took over as G2 at 92 Divisional Headquarters at Baramulla. Shah said his job was to roam around Baramulla and adjoining villages to gather any useful information. Major sahib would always ask me to arrange sources. I convinced Hameed to become Major sahibs source. We gave him a new name,Doctor sahib, the TA jawan told interrogators. In April 2010,Major sahib asked us to arrange a few young men and told me that we have to send them across to Pakistan to bring weapons and track (a group of militants) whom we could trap then. Major sahib promised to pay them and I asked Hameed for help.

Hameed had earlier introduced Bashir Ahmad Lone,a counter-insurgent from Nadihal village in Baramulla,to Shah. Hameed talked to Bashir to arrange the men.

A few days later,Bashir reported that he had convinced Shahzad Ahmad Khan,Mohammad Shafi Lone and Riyaz Ahmad Lone from his village and offered them Rs 2,000 a day for work for the Army at the LoC. The trip to the 4 Rajputana camp in Kalaroos was fixed for April 27. Bashir arranged a Tata Sumo and along with Hameed and the three men travelled to the camp.

Major asked us to go back home and come on April 29 as the weather was not good. On April 29,Abbas accompanied us, Hameed told police. Shahzad,Shafi and Riyaz were happy that they would be paid good money. They were talking on their cellphones and joking with each other. Abbas bought some Coke and chips. At Kupwara,he took us to a hotel where we all had kanti (fried boneless mutton) with naan. We even smoked charas.

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At Kalaroos,Hameed told interrogators,the Major was waiting with two Army vehicles. He asked Shahzad,Shafi and Riyaz to get into one truck while he asked us to board the other. He asked Bashir to leave along with the Sumo.

Next morning,Shah and Hameed say,they were given Rs 1.5 lakh by the Major along with the whiskey and beer as their reward. Hameed said Shah left with the Major.

The police believe that Shahzad,Shafi and Riyaz were taken to Sona Pindi on the Line of Control,shot dead in a staged encounter and later dubbed unidentified infiltrating militants. The Army also claimed to have recovered five AK rifles,ammunition and Pakistani currency from them.

The story started to unravel when on May 10,families of the three men in Nadihal registered a missing report with the police,and reported that they had left home with Bashir. Analysing the call details of the three and Bashir,police found they had all gone to Kalaroos. Bashir was picked up on May 21,followed Hameeds arrest. Police officially sought Shahs custody from the Commandant of his 161 TA battalion,and on May 27,he too was arrested.