• The Pathribal encounter took place in an area notified as a Disturbed Area under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1990 and that protection should be provided to the five officers named as “accused” by the CBI.

• That two of the five persons killed in the operation were on the list of active overground workers maintained by the Rashtriya Rifles and that the CBI probe revealed that a third among the dead also had terrorist links.

• That during the relevant period (command of Brig Saxena), the 7 RR unit received over 50 awards, including a dozen Sena medals. In two years, the unit eliminated 78 militants.

• That the CBI chargesheet had serious operational ramifications for future Kashmir operations since it would create distrust in the rank and file about verbal orders and posed a threat to the lone Kashmiri accused whose intelligence inputs had led to the elimination of 40 terrorists.

Though the CBI’s legal panel rules that the agency does not require sanction for prosecuting Army officers because killing of innocent persons in a fake encounter cannot be taken as discharge of “official duty”, the Army is gearing to challenge that view in the Srinagar court.

The Army’s counter is that the Pathribal encounter was a joint Police-Army operation, carried out on intelligence provided by the J&K police and that trial would jeopardise further joint counter-insurgency operations.

ritu.sarin@expressindia.com