Forensic tests nail Kashmir's killer cops

DNA test results have established that the two persons killed as foreign militants and buried in north Kashmir, Ganderbal police district, were actually local civilians.

The DNA sampling test reports of the bodies of the victims and their close kin conducted by Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Chandigarh, which were received by the state authorities on Thursday conclude that the two slain persons were actually local civilians picked up by the Special Operations Group, Ganderbal, and killed in fake north Kashmir encounters for cash and reward.

"We have today received the DNA test results of two persons whose remains were exhumed here earlier this month and sent to CSFL Chandigarh, for matching with those of their relatives.

"The DNA samples of Abdul Rehman Paddroo and Moulvi Showkat Kataria have tested positive with the samples of their relatives removing all doubts about their identity as locals and not foreign militants. The corroborative evidence thrown up by the DNA tests is irrefutable and we shall be presenting the chargesheet against the accused in the court of law shortly," said a senior police officer in Srinagar.

Farooq Ahmed, the deputy inspector general of police who heads the special investigating team probing the disappearance and subsequent murders of five civilians, said, "The DNA results in the case of three other victims would be available within a fortnight."

Paddroo, the south Kashmir carpenter had gone missing from Batmaloo locality of Srinagar on December 8, 2006, a day before he was killed in a fake encounter after being framed as a foreign militant by the members of the SOG Ganderbal.

Kataria, belonged to Nowkote village near Banihal, a town on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway in Jammu region.

Kataria went missing from the downtown Zadibal locality of Srinagar where he was performing the duties of an Imam (preacher who conducts the daily Muslim prayers) on October 5, 2006.

He was killed as a foreign militant in a fake encounter in Bazipora village near Ajas of Ganderbal within six hours of his disappearance by the SOG and troops of 13 Rashtriya Rifles.

It must be recalled that Ganderbal police chief H R Parihar and his deputy Bahadur Ram and five other junior level members of the SOG have been arrested in connection with the infamous fake encounters racket that surfaced following the police investigations into the disappearance of Paddroo.

The DNA sampling of the slain south Kashmir carpenter Abdul Rahman Paddroo, who was framed and killed as a foreign militant, has tested positive.