THE FAMILY MEMBERS of Ram Lal, who along with three other porters was allegedly killed in a fake army encounter in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir in April 2004, still cannot come out of the grief and disassociate themselves from the cherished moments spent with Ram Lal.

 

The death of the sole bread earner for the family and poor economic condition forced the deceased’s wife, Mesho Devi to work in a factory so that she could feed her five children, two sons and three daughters. Because of their poor financial condition, two elder children of the family had to leave their studies midway.

 

After looking at their house, one can easily guess the plight of this ill-fated family. It is a one-room set Kachha house with a collapsed boundary wall in a small by-lane of village Lalyal near Chatha in Jammu district.

 

“The time when Ram Lal left his family, his wife was pregnant and a son was born after his death. The boy who never saw his father asks questions about his whereabouts from the rest of family members,” said a villager of Lalyal.

 

 “My brother Ram Lal along with three other labourers, Satpal of village Chatha, Bushan Lal of Mangu Chack near Jammu and Ashok Kumar of Pathankot (Punjab), were persuaded to work as porters in “national interest” by some army men who promised them to pay Rs 6000 per month on April 12, 2004,” informed Bhola, one of the brothers of deceased Ram Lal while talking to the reporter. Bhola added, “But they did not know what the fate had in its hand for them. They were gunned down in Kupwara posing them as ’Pakistani terrorists. Ram Lal being the eldest among five brothers was the main bread earner for the family. Ill-luck fell upon us when we received an anonymous letter by a soldier of 18 Rashtriya Rifles about the death of our brother a year after he was taken by the army,” he added.

 

While deceased’s aged mother with heavy throat simply asked, “Why am I still alive to see this day when my son is no more?”

 

It may be mentioned here that mystery was deepened when anonymous letters mentioning about the killings of the labourers in an encounter on April 20, 2004 were received by the families of Ram Lal and others deceased.

 

Recalling his visit to Srinagar, Bhola said, “We went to Kashmir Valley where we stayed for about ten days. We approached senior army authorities with the request of marking a high-level inquiry into the case. We also requested that dead bodies should be exhumed for proper identification and the guilty officials should be taken to task,” Bhola said. He further added that, “Even though we were taken to the Lolab Valley of Kupwara, the bodies of the victims were not exhumed in our presence despite our repeated requests. As the sun was about to set, we were told that the area is near LoC and under cross-firing,” he added.

 

Bhola and family members also added that one Captain Sumit Kohli of 18 RR who had shown sympathy towards them was found dead too on April 30, 2005, after few days of their visit to the valley. They smelled a foul play in this death also.

 

Even though a board of enquiry was constituted under the command of Brigadier Dixit and Kupwara Police had registered a case of kidnapping and murder against 10 accused soldiers of Rashtriya Rifles 18 Bn in 2005 for the alleged custodial killing of four porters of Jammu in Kupwara, justice is still awaited.

 

It is worth mentioning here that family members of Sumit, Shaurya Chakra awardee too had then alleged that Kohli’s death is linked to the murder of four labourers of Jammu in a fake gunfight.

 

Like Ram Lal’s family, family of another victim Bhushan Lal a resident of Mangu Chak has also been living in miserable conditions. His old father Madan Lal has to look after two daughters of the deceased.

 

The hope to get justice has kindled among the family members as the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, on June 23, 2007, issued notices to Union of India through Secretary Defence, Chief of Army Staff, General Officer Commanding Northern Command, Chief Secretary J&K State, DC Kupwara, SSP Kupwara, DC Jammu and 12 officers/officials 18 RR.

 

The family members of deceased filed a writ petition and asked for the investigation of the alleged fake encounter by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and compensation of Rs 10 lacs each to the legal heirs of deceased.

 

This writ petition filed through Advocates Sudershan Sharma, Ashwani Khajuria and Riyaaz Choudhary in which it has been alleged that the officers/officials of Rashtriya Rifles in order to earn the awards and out of turn promotions killed the labourers in fake encounter in the forests of Markool Lolab in District Kupwara, Kashmir in the garb of militancy.