More fake encounters in Indian Army by Sultan M Hali

The Indian Army suspended a Major and removed a Colonel from command on June 13, 2010 for their alleged role in staging the killing of three youths in North Kashmir’s Machil sector along the LoC on April 30 and dubbing them Pakistani infiltrators, reports the “Times of India”. Colonel D K Pathania was commanding the unit 4 Rajput, allegedly responsible for the fake encounter, while J&K police named Major Upender Kumar as the main accused. The Indian Army had last week ordered a probe after a police report accused Major Upender of luring the trio with a job offer and gunning them down for rewards and promotion.

“Colonel Pathania has been asked not to leave the Valley till inquiry is completed,” said Army’s Northern Command chief Lieutenant General B S Jaiswal. He was about to join his unit, which has relocated to Meerut. Pathania is the second officer to be removed from command after 33 Rashtriya rifles’ Colonel Gloria was removed for allegedly killing three boys in Dudipora-Handwara in North Kashmir in February 2006. It needs to be brought out that the Indian Army, which has let loose a reign of terror in the Valley of Kashmir, has committed every crime in the book.

Kashmir has been a flashpoint between Pakistan and India since the British left it as an unfinished agenda. Indian Army illegally occupied Kashmir. Pakistan and India have gone to war thrice, in 1947-48, 1965 and 1971 but the plight of the Kashmiris has not changed. In 1989, the Kashmiris took up the cudgel of launching a freedom movement. However, the Indian Army came down hard on the Kashmiris by deploying over seven lakh soldiers, brutalizing them through murder rape, loot and arson. In a bid to malign Pakistan for morally supporting the Kashmiris, initially, on the eve of every visit by an international dignitary to India, a fake attack was stage managed and Pakistan was blamed so that it could be pressurized and given a bad name. Later the Indian Army started staging fake encounters for earning medals for valour as well as accelerated promotions.

The Kargil War created even more opportunities for Indian Army personnel to conjure false encounters and create make-believe stories of valour. Last month, Indian army faced a huge embarrassment when its Armed Forces Tribunal raised serious questions over the Kargil war history setting the record straight regarding Indian fake claims in the Kargil skirmish, some of which came to light, when Brigadier Devinder Singh, who had commanded the 70 Infantry Brigade in the Batalik sector during the Kargil war petitioned against his superiors after being passed over for promotion and given only a low level peace time medal. Brigadier Singh had fought bravely but unfortunately for Singh, his superiors did not recognize his efforts and Lieutenant General Kishan Pal, his Corps Commander, doctored his battle performance report to underplay his role. Brigadier Singh became a victim of prejudice and that cost him a war medal and promotion.

The verdict in the favour of Kargil war hero Brigadier Devinder Singh came as a slap on the face of the Indian army’s Kargil war commanders. The tribunal has questioned the veracity of entire history of the Kargil war and concluded that top commanders fabricated war records to award their favourites with fake encounters. After a bitter decade-long fight, the Indian army has been forced to set the record straight about its performance in the Kargil conflict. In a judgment made public, Justice A.K. Mathur and Lieutenant-General Naidu have called on the Indian Army for a full investigation into the actions of the military leadership in the 1999 Kargil war. According to India Today, former Indian army chief General V.P. Malik has also admitted that the Indian Army had fudged the records for its gains. Readers may recall a February 01, 2010 exposé titled ‘Another Fake Kargil Hero emerges in Indian Army’, in which the lid had been blown off Grenadier Yonginder Singh Yadav and Havaldar Sanjay Kumar, who had been decorated and promoted out of turn for their feigned valour but later after the discovery of their falsehood, stripped of their ranks. After the Kargil conflict was over, the Indian Army Headquarters at New Delhi, which was stormed by controversies and massive criticism, not only for the debacle at the war front but also for the massive financial wrongdoings in the direction of procurements by army, had directed all the commanders of the Kargil front to immediately submit citations for the bravery of the soldiers so that the pressure from the political circles could be minimized nonetheless to boost up the morale of the demoralized troops.

In the hasty compliance of strong orders from the headquarters, the commanders at Kargil made a variety of blunders and submitted many fake citations with the recommendations of top military awards including the highest and the most prestigious Paran Vir Chakra) (PVC) award. Wrong citations started surfacing soon and the biggest blunder in this regard emerged when the farcical episode of PVC recipient Grenadier Yoginder Singh Yadav got exposed as Yoginder was found hiding at a military hospital in New Delhi while, following the fake citations of his commanders, the government of India had awarded him with the posthumous (after death) PVC award. Indian army leadership was taken to sword by the opposition parties in the parliament not only for outrageous display of combat at Kargil but also for huge financial wrongdoings in procurements, during the conflict.

The latest findings indicate that after pointing out glaring lapses and improprieties in purchase of specialized mountain warfare equipment for the Kargil war, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India had said that even non-high-altitude weaponry deals were pushed through by the Defence Ministry in the name of Operation Vijay. Today as the truth emerges after eleven years, the Indian Army must hang its head in shame and conduct a full length inquiry as the tribunal has ordered to cleanse its records once for all and expose all its fake heroes.

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