BANGARGUND (KUPWARA), JULY 24 The shroud couldn’t hide the bloodstains on his white-and-grey uniform. Sixteen-year-old Mohamad Shabir Shah had headed straight from school for a wedding party. With him were Bilal (15) and Waseem (10). An hour past midnight Saturday, the celebrations turned into a nightmare: As the boys walked out of the tent, an Army patrol mistook them for militants and opened fire.

While Mohamad, Waseem and Bilal were killed, Manzoor Ahmad Shah, the groom’s brother, was seriously injured.

‘‘We couldn’t even hear their screams, their cries for help because the bands were playing,’’ said Habibullah Sheikh whose nephew was among those killed.

At 1 am, when the wedding party was at its peak, the boys slipped out to smoke cigarettes, away from the gaze of their relatives. They never returned. Nobody looked for them till mortar fire boomed in the village. And then everybody knew there was bad news.

The police have filed a case against the local Army unit and the SHO of the area has been shifted out. An embarrassed J&K government has ordered a magisterial probe, asking the Kupwara additional deputy commissioner to investigate the killing of the three boys.

The Army says that they had laid an ambush and mistook the boys for militants. ‘‘It is unfortunate. But the villagers should have been cautious. They should not have let the boys venture out in the open at that time of the night,’’ said Defence spokesman Lt Col V K Batra. ‘‘How will troops distinguish between militants and civilians?

But the villagers don’t agree. ‘‘In this area, nothing can happen without the knowledge and permission of the local Army camp,’’ said Assadullah Wani, a village shopkeeper. ‘‘There were two weddings as the groom and bride are neighbours. The families had gone to the camp to inform the Army. They had even taken sweets for the jawans,’’ he said.

Angry villagers confronted the deputy commissioner when he reached the spot today. ‘‘See what they did to our school. Is this the peace process?’’ asked Azad Saleem Sofi.

As word spread, so did anger. Police vehicles and offices were damaged in nearby Handwara town as protesters demanded immediate action against the Armymen.