STRUCTURES OF VIOLENCE

315| Structures of Violence
Alleged Perpetrators
1. Commanding Ofcer [Colonel] of Frisal camp
[on 29 October 1994]
2. Captain Adjutant P. Saxena, 9 Rashtriya
Ries, Frisal Camp
3. Major Gill, 9 Rashtriya Ries, Panchgam
Camp
Case Information
On 29 October 1994, at around 9 am in the morning,
there was a crackdown in the village of Liddarmad in
Pulwama. The family saw around one thousand army
men from the Rashtriya Ries of Freshil Camp arrive
in 10-20 vehicles and surround the village. The army
was accompanied by a “mukhbir” [informant] who had
given the army information regarding the
whereabouts of Mohammad Ismail Bhat, a militant
who had joined the armed struggle in 1988 and had
been active in the area for nearly three years. The
brother of the victim was at his shop on the main road
at the time.
Following the arrival of the army, there was an
announcement in the village mosque urging all the
villagers to gather in the building of the primary
government school wherein the men of the village
were taken inside the compound of the school and the
women were kept outside the school compound.
There were around one thousand men from the
village inside the compound along with 10-20
personnel of the Rashtriya Ries with a Kashmiri
Pandit Commanding Ofcer [CO] from the Frisal
Camp and Major Gill of the Panchgam Army Camp.
[The family believes the Commanding Ofcer was a
Kashmiri Pandit because he looked like a native
Kashmiri and also spoke Kashmiri.]
At the camp, the CO ordered the brother of the militant
to stand up, and he did. The army personnel beat the
brother of the victim and asked him for information
about his militant brother to which he said that he
didn't possess any such information. The father,
mother and sisters of the victim were also beaten. In
the meantime, 2-3 army men got the victim into the
school – the victim had left his house a week earlier
and the family did not know of his whereabouts. The
family later came to know that the victim had been
staying in the village and had tried to escape to a
meadow in the area but was caught by the army and
identied by the “mukhbir'.
Both the brothers were taken inside the school and
kept in separate rooms. However, the brother of the
victim was able to look into the room where the victim
was through a slight gap in the doors. The brother of
the victim was stripped and, while being severely
beaten, was asked to reveal the location of his guns
and ammunition and ordered to hand them over. The
brother of the victim was also taken to a nearby river
and pushed into it while the army personnel tied his
hands and tried to drown him.
The brother of the victim believes that the victim was
repeatedly hit with bricks, the sound of which the
brother of the victim heard from the adjoining room. At
around 2 pm, the victim confessed to being a militant
and was taken to Hangen, Yarripora to his
grandparents' house, where the victim handed over
an AK-47 to the army personnel. The brother of the
victim was also made to accompany the army to
Yarripora; following this both were brought back to the
school.
At around 7 pm, the family heard 2-3 shots being red;
the brother of the victim also heard this ring while at
the school. At 7:30 pm, an army personnel
accompanying the CO asked him if the brother of the
victim was also to be shot.
The next day, at 4 or 5pm, the family received the dead
body of the victim from the police of the Zainapora
Police Station. It had three bullet marks on the head.
The family suspects that the victim had died during the
'interrogation' but was later shot so as to justify the
rationale of 'cross-ring', which was the narrative
employed in the First Information Report [FIR] led
regarding the killing of the victim.
The army tormented the family even after the killing of
the victim. As a result, the family moved further into
the village, far from their previous residence on the
main road. They built a new house so that they would
have time to escape when the armed forces
approached.
The brother of the victim, Mohammad Ashraf Bhat,
gave the above statement to the IPTK 7 April 2015.
An FIR was registered no. 142/1994 at Police Station
Pulwama, with regard to the killing of Mohammad
th
Ismail Bhat by the 9 Battalion of the Rashtriya Ries
under section 307 [Attempt to Murder] of the Ranbir
Penal Code and Sections 3/25 of the Arms Act stating
the date of the “cross ring” to be 30 October 1994.
This FIR was led by Captain P. Saxena on behalf of
the Commanding Ofcer and states that the victim
was killed in an encounter.
The Jammu and Kashmir Police have provided no
information on the status of investigations in this
case. From the statement of the witness Major Gill's
role is on record. The FIR places both Captain P.
Saxena and the Commanding Ofcer at the time on
record as well. The witness – brother of the victim –
has given a cogent, credible statement and he is an
eye-witness to the torture of his brother. Therefore,
the evidence exists for investigation and
prosecution in this case.