The Jammu and Kashmir High Court may deliver verdict in the alleged fake encounter case involving Lt General Bikram Singh, the designate Army Chief.
On May 10, Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir had adjourned the case till today after hearing the counsels for Defence ministry and the state government.
The case took a new turn yesterday after the petitioner told the court that the genuineness of the incident was not in doubt but questions on identity of the assailant remained.
“We are not saying that the militant attack (on the motorcade of the then Brigadier Singh) did not take place. We are seeking reinvestigation of the incident to establish the identity of the person dubbed as a foreign militant and the assailant,” counsel for the petitioner advocate Zaffar Qureshi told the High Court.
Gen Singh is due to take over from Gen VK Singh on May 31.
Zaituna, a woman from Kalaroos in Kupwara district of north Kashmir, has filed a petition before the High Court claiming that the slain man dubbed as Hizbul Mujahideen militant Mateen Chacha was her son Abdullah Bhat.
Earlier, the state government counsel informed the Court that the objections filed by Senior Superintendent of Police Anantnag in the case be taken on board as that of the state government as well.
Police and Defence ministry had already submitted their objections to the petition filed by Zaituna, who has alleged that her son Abdullah Bhat, a resident of Macchil in Kupwara district, was killed in a fake encounter at Anantnag town in March 2001 and later branded as a Pakistani militant ‘Mateen Chacha’.
According to the objections filed by the defence ministry, Lt Gen Singh, who was then a brigadier commanding the 1 Sector Rashtriya Rifles in south Kashmir, was returning to Anantnag after visiting various Army units.
Later, when the Army Convoy stopped at Janglat Mandi in Anantnag, a militant disguised as a beggar opened indiscriminate fire upon the armymen.
While Colonel JP Janu and Rifleman Ganesh Kumar were killed, Gen Singh and another officer were injured in the attack. The assailant and two civilians were also killed in the incident.
—-Agencies