For one lakh reward money, army source gets Larnoo laborer killed
Mir Tariq Srinagar, June 23: For many years, Muhammad Yousuf Sheikh, a laborer from South Kashmir’s Larnoo Village, used to wait near Dalgate every morning till someone hired him for any odd job. June 3 was not different. A stranger,
Riyaz Ahmad Cheechi alighted from a Tata Sumo taxi under registration number JK05/0281 and approached him with an offer. “Will you work against a fat wage at Karan Nagar?” Sheikh consented and boarded the Sumo. When the Sumo kept rolling toward North Kashmir, Sheikh wondered why they were heading north. But Cheechi insisted that Yousuf accompanied him on his trip to Bandipora for some “personal work”. But little did the poor Yousuf Sheikh know that he was going to meet the fate of his neighbor Abdul Rehman Paddar, who was picked up from Srinagar, killed in a fake encounter and buried as a “foreign militant” in the countryside at Ganderbal in 2006. The vehicle reached Brar, a sparsely populated forest area of Bandipora, around 1 pm. Abhishek Chowdhary, Commander of JAKLI 3 at Bonakoot camp was already waiting at Brar post. Cheechi and Sheikh disembarked for a break. Meanwhile Sheikh prepared for the afternoon prayers and offered Nimaz in the open sky. By the time Sheikh finished his prayers Cheechi had vanished after dropping a word with the army that Sheikh was the “militant” he had brought from Srinagar. The soldiers surrounded Sheikh and shot him dead. He was later buried in a nearby field. When the slain M Yousuf Sheikh’s kin reached Bandipora with his photograph, a resident told them he had seen the same person with one Riyaz Cheechi. While the family members approached police to know who Cheechi was they were surprised to know that he was in Police custody for past 12 days. Police sources said his confessional statement has been recorded and his accomplice Tahir Pathana, Rifleman in JAKLI who lives at Aloosa Bandipora, has also been arrested during a nocturnal raid on Sunday. As per Cheechi’s account which he narrated to his interrogators, Tahir had actually introduced him to army and he was working as a “source” for some months. He used to get monetary assistance from army quite frequently till he was asked to “get a militant and earn one lakh rupees.” Why did he land in jail after getting Yousuf Sheikh killed? According to the interrogation report, Cheechi rushed back to Srinagar after Yousuf Sheikh was killed in cold blood. Here, police sources say, he tried to elope with a girl and was arrested along with her on June 11. FIR report Police on June 3 had registered an FIR No. 108 Under Section 302- RPC after Army handed over an unidentified body to police. The FIR registered by the Army reads: “A patrolling party of Army which was on its way to cordon Chailwan forests on June 3 heard some gunshots on its way. When we rushed towards the spot a man was already dead there. We informed head of the village, who came with other villagers. After inquiring about the killed man we came to know that he is not the resident of the area so we handed over the body to the police at the same spot in presence of the Assistant Superintendent of Police, village head and Station House Officer Bandipore.” PDP condemns killingThe Peoples Democratic Party leader Seher Iqbal has condemned “fake encounter killing of Muhammad Yousuf Sheikh of Nematpora Larno Kukernag.” She said that the deceased was mason and his killing in fake encounter is another example of lawlessness prevailing in the State. She demanded immediate arrest of killers and said those involved in the murder should be brought to book.She also demanded ex-gratia for the family. She said though the ex-gratia and job to next of the kin of deceased would not compensate the loss, the government should do its duty. Apart from it, she said, the government has responsibility to direct the police to lodge an FIR against the culprits involved in the murder.

Listen To Article
Save Article
Print Article
Send Article To Friend
Write To Editor
Comment On Article