Defence spokesman Colonel Hemant Juneja described the killings as a case of 'mistaken identity'. Juneja told rediff.com that a "court of enquiry has been ordered into the killings" which took place on the slopes of the wooded mountain adjacent to the village.
The two villagers were moving uphill into the forest areas to cut grass for cattle when the incident happened Saturday morning.
"Troops of Rashtriya Rifles had on specific information about militant movement in the jungle laid an ambush. The soldiers noticed some movement and they challenged the duo.
However they ran into the ambush and the soldiers opened fire killing both of them on the spot," Juneja said. The news of the killings caused a wave of shock in their native village and the villagers came out in large numbers to protest the killings chanting anti-government slogans.
The villagers also blocked the main road artery connecting the border district headquarter Kupwara with the summer capital Srinagar.
Carrying the bodies of the slain, the villagers were demanding stern action against the army troopers. Deputy commissioner Kupwara Abdul Majid Khanday visited the village this afternoon to pacify the protestors.
The district police chief and other officers accompanied him. Khanday said a case has been registered in the local police station and an inquiry ordered into the matter.
"Compensation will also be provided to the next of kin," he added. Coincidentally the incident occurred on a day when the Kashmir valley is shut down in protest against the killing of a youth by paramilitary central reserve police force on Wednesday last at Dalgate in city uptown.