ANKARA

An Indian armed forces tribunal has suspended the life sentence of an army officer who was found "guilty" of a staged gunfight in Indian-administered Kashmir in 2020. 

Three civilians, dubbed as militants, were killed in the fake operation.

The armed forces tribunal also granted conditional bail to Capt. Bhoopendra Singh of the Indian army, who was found guilty of killing three men in the staged encounter, New Delhi-based Press Trust of India reported.

In the staged encounter, three men – Imtiyaz Ahmad, 21; Abrar Ahmad, 25; and Abrar Khatana, 18 – were shot dead in Amshipora village in Indian-administered Kashmir’s Shopian district on July 18, 2020.

After two months of protests by their families, who said the victims were laborers with no connection to any militant outfits, the Indian military admitted its wrongdoing on Sept. 18 that year.

In a statement, the Indian army had said the men were laborers from Rajouri, an area in the Jammu region of the disputed territory, and that its personnel had overstepped their authority by exceeding the powers vested under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).

“The applicant (convicted soldier) has already been in custody for a period of about three years and therefore, it is a fit case where, prima facie, evidence available on record suggests that bail can be granted to the applicant by suspending the sentence,” said a two-member tribunal headed by chairperson Justice Rajendra Menon.

This is the second such case where an armed forces tribunal suspended the sentence of its personnel who were found involved in staged gunfights in Kashmir.

In 2017, a military court suspended the life sentence given to five soldiers who were convicted of killing three Kashmiri civilians in a staged shootout in 2010 in northern Kashmir – in a case known as fake Machil encounter.

- Disputed region

Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region, is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full. A small sliver of Kashmir is also held by China.

Since they were partitioned in 1947, the two countries have fought three wars – in 1948, 1965, and 1971 – two of them over Kashmir.

Also, in the Siachen glacier in northern Kashmir, Indian and Pakistani troops have fought intermittently since 1984. A cease-fire went into effect in 2003.

In August 2019, India scrapped the longstanding semi-autonomous status of the disputed valley, a controversial move that prompted Islamabad to downgrade its diplomatic mission and halt trade with New Delhi.

Some Kashmiri groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting against Indian rule for independence, or unification with neighboring Pakistan.

According to several human rights groups, thousands of people have been killed in the conflict in the region since 1989.