Police officials investigating the killing of three unarmed civilians by an army officer in occupied Jammu and Kashmir said the officer took the step to get a cash reward.
According to the AFP news agency, the police chargesheet states that Indian Army Captain Bhupinder Singh was convicted in July 2020 of killing three workers and conspiring in December, and was offered a 27,200 reward. What was done to achieve
Bhupinder Singh and his two accomplices claimed that the three Kashmiri were armed, but the police investigation revealed that they allegedly showed fake weapons to the men to portray them as terrorists.
It should be noted that the Indian government pays 27,000 dollars to the government forces for killing the alleged terrorists, where thousands of people have lost their lives since 1989 on charges of mischief against the Indian government.
Cash rewards for government forces are given by the government, not the army.
Human rights activists warn that financial rewards will lead to extrajudicial killings of innocent people.
Leading activist Pervez Emroz said that "there is a fear that the firing incidents will continue with the exception of cash rewards in which innocent civilians are killed."
Occupied Jammu and Kashmir has been under the Military Emergency Act since 1990, which gives the military broad powers to shoot suspected separatists.
Under the law, soldiers are also exempt from prosecuting these crimes in civil courts, but may hear special cases permitted by the government.
No such permission has been granted by the Indian government in the last three decades, although dozens of requests have been made by the police following an investigation into the actions of the security forces.
Three Indian Army officers were convicted and court-martialled in 2010 for targeting three laborers and presented as Pakistani infiltrators near the so-called Line of Control.
Protests continued for months after the incident, during which hundreds of people were killed.
Earlier in 2000, the Indian Army claimed to have killed five 'terrorists' responsible for the massacre of 35 Sikhs, but an investigation revealed that all five were locals and had been killed in a fake encounter.
