Army orders inquiry into disappearance of 3 Kupwara residents

The Army today ordered an inquiry into the disappearance of three missing persons allegedly abducted by a soldier in Kupwara district and said the force is committed to "absolutely zero tolerance" for human rights violations.
"Whenever any such incident takes place of which police or judiciary has taken cognisance, army automatically institutes an investigation.
"So, our own investigation is also on and if it is found that anyone has done something wrong, army will not play favorites. We are committed to absolutely zero tolerance for human rights violations," General Officer Commanding (GoC) of Srinagar-based 15 Corps, Lt Gen Satish Dua told reporters.

Lt Gen Dua was responding to a query whether the army, at its own level, has instituted any inquiry into the alleged abduction case for which a Territorial Army (TA) personnel, Manzoor Ahmad Khwaja, has been arrested by the police.
Ghulam Jeelani Khatana (42), Mir Hussain Khatana (45) and Ali Muhammad Sheikh (40), all residents of Kupwara district, have been reported missing since November 17 when they had left home reportedly to work as porters with the Army.
On the status of infiltration from across the Line of Control (LoC), the army commander said there was a possibility of such attempts being made before more snowfall leads to closing of passes.

"The passes are getting closed now. However, snow levels in some places are not so prohibitive that they may not make any more attempts.

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On the force's longest operation in the Valley in Manigah area of north Kashmir's Kupwara district, Lt Gen Dua said it did not want to cause inconvenience to the people "beyond a certain point" and carried the operation the way it was supposed to.
"We were at it. We did carry out the operations the way we are supposed to for a long time. We lost an officer. We got two militants, (but) we did not get all of them.

"The terrain is such that beyond a certain point we did not want to (cause) inconvenience to local people and we have our own modus operandi of continuing the search for the very same militants which is on," he said.
The GoC said the army would "reconsider" the decision of having a firing range in Bajpathri if it "causes more hardships than the advantages".
"You are aware that last year we closed down Tosamaidan (in central Kashmir's Budgam district) and handed it back. Army does need a range to practice. We do need that for our training. So we were looking for alternatives.

"This (Bajpathri) is one of the alternatives worked out between officials at lower levels initially and our officers. But I understand if it is going to cause more hardships than the advantages...Then we will reconsider it," he said.