As the Army and CRPF ordered internal probes into the fake encounters in which five civilians were killed recently and passed off as Pakistani militants, sources in the J&K Police said one of the reasons why the police in Ganderbal — the district SSP is among four arrested — thought they could get away with the killings is because fewer questions are asked when non-Kashmiri militants are killed in operations.

Sources said that other than the prospect of cash rewards and out-of-turn promotions, the police are aware that there`s an unofficial practice of categorising militants — category A is for top militants — and the fact that encounters involving foreign militants are rarely questioned.

A senior officer told The Indian Express: “This is the reason why each one of these civilians killed in fake encounters was dubbed a foreign militant. The culprits knew that not many questions will be asked once they tell their superiors that they have killed Pakistani militants. Nobody cares whether a foreign militant has been killed in a fake encounter or a genuine operation. The same goes for local militants who make it to category A.”

This unofficial practice, sources said, may have something to do with the consternation in police ranks ever since the release in Kandahar in 1999 of jailed militant leaders in exchange for passengers on board the hijacked IC-814.

Meanwhile, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of the Hurriyat moderate faction, has demanded an “impartial” probe by members of “civil society” into all allegations of custodial killings since the start of militancy in J&K and withdrawal of special powers to security forces in the state.

... contd.