SRINAGAR: Army on Monday said inquiry is yet to be completed into tying of a civilian in front of an army jeep as a human shield and parading him in villages to prevent the youth from stone pelting.
“The Court of Inquiry ordered into the incident wherein a civilian was tied to an Army jeep is still incomplete,” Defence spokesman in Srinagar, Colonel Rajesh Kalia said.
Earlier, some media reports had claimed that the army officer who used the civilian, Farooq Ahmad Dar, as human shield on polling day in Budgam was cleared of all charges.
“Reports in some sections of the media of the army major being given a clean chit are speculative,” Kalia said.
Army had ordered Court of Inquiry (CoI) after video had gone viral on April 14 in which a youth was tied to a moving army jeep as a human shield against stone pelting.
Police had registered an FIR after outrage over the incident.
The video was apparently shot in Beerwah area of central Kashmir’s Budgam district on April 9 when polling took place for bypolls to Srinagar parliamentary seat.
In the video, a young man can be seen tied in front of an army vehicle, which is moving in front of a convoy of army vehicles. An announcement was being made that the stone pelters will meet the same fate.
The man identified as Farooq Ahmad Dar, a resident of Chill village in Khag tehsil of Budgam district, had told media that he had cast vote and was to visit his sister's house, where a bereavement had taken place, to offer condolences, when he was picked up by men of 53 Rashtria Rifles.
He had said that he was released after being paraded in at least a dozen villages.
Ruling PDP chief spokesman Mehboob Beg told New Indian Express that people in uniform have responsibility and they should behave more responsibly then the people who don’t have uniform.
“We need to be more serious and more responsive to whatever is happening. We are dealing with our own people and not with enemy or foreigners,” he said.
Beg said if something has happened wrong, then they should accept it and apologise for it.
“They should ensure that it should not happen again,” he added.