Pakistan demands judicial probe into killing of three Kashmiris youth

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan had called for a transparent judicial inquiry into the extrajudicial killing of three innocent Kashmiris in Indian-occupied Kashmir (IOK).

In a statement today, the spokesman of Foreign Office, Zahid Hafeez termed the Indian army’s statement an “acknowledgment that Indian occupation forces are guilty of war crimes in IIOJK (Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir)”.

The Foreign Office called for a “transparent judicial inquiry, under international scrutiny, into the extra-judicial killing” of the three Kashmiris, while urging the international community to take notice of the incident.

The statement said the three Kashmiri boys Imtiyaz Ahmed aged 25, Mohammad Ibrar, 20, and Abrar Ahmed,16 — had come to Shopian to work in an apple orchard as laborers but were killed in a so-called cordon and search’ operation”.

In the statement, the spokesman added that the Indian army had claimed that the three boys were “unidentified terrorists” to cover up their “cold-blooded murder” and had buried them in a graveyard marked for “foreign terrorists” instead of returning their bodies to their families.

“The Indian occupation forces itself has admitted that the three innocent Kashmiri laborers have killed extra-judicially a hallmark of Indian occupation forces’ state-terrorism in IIOJK. In its statement, the Indian army has accepted that the powers vested under the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act were exceeded,” the FO added.

“More than 300, mostly young, Kashmiris youths have been extra-judicially killed by the Indian occupation forces in fake ‘encounters’ and staged ‘cordon-and-search’ operations in IIOJK during the past one year,” said the statement.

“The BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) leadership must realize that they are directly responsible for crimes against the Kashmiri people. No illegal and inhuman laws such as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and Public Safety Act (PSA) can provide immunity against the crimes that are being perpetrated in IIOJK,” it said.

The international community must take immediate cognizance of the July 18, 2020, episode in IIOJK as well as other acts indicative of the RSS-BJP regime’s genocidal tendencies and hold it accountable for continuing crimes against the Kashmiri people,” it stressed.

“India should be well-aware that use of brutal force, including extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture in custody, use of pellet guns [and] burning and destruction of Kashmiris’ houses to inflict collective punishment, cannot break the will of Kashmiri people in their just struggle for the inalienable right to self-determination.”

In 2010, three Indian army officers were found guilty of killing three laborers who had been branded as Pakistani infiltrators near the Line of Control.

Earlier, the Indian army said it launched disciplinary proceedings against an unspecified number of soldiers following an inquiry into the killing of three youths in Kashmir.

A defense spokesman said evidence showed soldiers had exceeded their powers under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which grants the army broad authority including shoot-to-kill powers.

In July the army said it had killed the three men in an operation against militants in the Shopian district of IOK.