DNA samples match

The families of the victims of the Shopian fake encounter got a sigh of relief when police said that the DNA samples of the parents of three young boys from Rajouri districts matched those killed by the army in the encounter.

The families have already demanded stern action against the culprits responsible for the killing of their dear ones and have also demanded that they should be allowed to exhume the bodies so that they can give them a decent burial in their respective villages.

These developments have come after an Army inquiry into “prima facie” found evidence that its men violated powers under Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) during an encounter

IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar said they received the DNA sample results and it has matched those killed in Amshipora, indicating that the police will investigate further the entire gunfight and how the victims were killed and dubbed as militants.

Police said that they will now take further course of action and complete remaining formalities and also indicate that the probe would be completed as soon as possible.

The Army on July 18 had said three unidentified militants, who had fired at the soldiers, were killed in a gunfight in Amshipora Shopian. A controversy over the encounter erupted, when three families in Rajouri in Jammu division, claimed the slain were three missing cousins who had travelled to Shopian to work as laborers but were killed in a staged encounter. As the allegations surfaced, both Army and police started a probe into this gunfight.