AMN /
Six army men including two officers have got life imprisonment by an army court for the killing of three youths in a fake encounter in Machil in Jammu and Kashmir in 2010.
PRO Defence, Northern Command, Col SD Goswami said, six personnel – Colonel Dinesh Pathania, Captain Opindra, Havaldar Devender Kumar, Lance Naik Lakhmi, Lance Naik Arun Kumar and Rifleman Abbas Hussain – were held guilty by the Summery General Court Martial (SGCM) which sentenced them to life imprisonment in November last year.
The six army personnel will now be handed over to jail authorities as legal proceedings have been completed by the Army. An appeal can be filed in high court in such cases.
The incident came to light on April 30, 2010 when bodies of three youths were shown by Army as militants who were trying to sneak into the Valley from higher reaches of Machil in North Kashmir with arms and ammunition.
However, it was established by Jammu and Kashmir police that they were unemployed youths Mohamad Shafi, Shehzad Ahmed and Riyaz Ahmed and residents of Nadihal in Baramulla district. They were apparently misled on the pretext of giving jobs and later shot dead.