Major leetul Gogoi, a Rashtriya Rifles officer in central district Budgam on Tuesday justified his action to use a man Farooq Ahmad Dar as human shield last month saying the act was done to save human lives. He said Dar was stone-pelter and ring leader of a gang that pelted stones on security forces deployed on election duty.
The controversial act drew widespread condemnation in Kashmir and outside but there were several voices in its favour as well. On Monday, the army awarded the officer for his ‘bravery’ even as a Court of Inquiry is underway. The provincial police chief in Kashmir Munir Khan said that police was investigating the case as FIR has ben lodged.
“Had I fired there would have been many casualties,” Gogoi said at a press
conference in the Beerwah camp of the army in Budgam district.
“At that time suddenly in my mind, the idea to tie him to the jeep came. Seeing this (man tied to the jeep), the stone pelting stopped. Then I got a safe window to come out.” Gogoi added that he tied Dar to the jeep to ensure safety of the villagers.
Gogoi said that he ordered troopers to catch hold of Dar as soon as they saw him. He claims to have later found that Dar “was the person who was instigating, he might be the ring leader”.
He says Dar tried to flee on a bike on seeing the troopers run towards him.
Gogoi said that his team had rushed to the village where he caught hold of Dar after he got distress calls from ITBP troopers posted at a polling station in Budgam on April 9. He claimed that he was trying to escort the polling staff and troopers away when they were faced by a 1200 protesters.
“Around 1,200 people had surrounded the poll station and were trying to burn it with petrol bombs. People were pelting stones from all sides, even women and children, and even people from roof tops,” he said.
After the incident, Army said that it had started a
court of enquiry while
police has lodged an FIR in the incident. After Gogoi justified his actions, former Chief Minister of J&K, Omar Abdullah, tweeted, “In future pls don’t bother with the farce of a military court of inquiry. Clearly the only court that matters is the court of public opinion”.
He added, “And international conventions like the Geneva/Vienna ones only count when India can accuse others of violations. Do as we say not as we do”.
Amnesty International also released a press statement saying that the Army’s award to Major Gogoi showed India’s “disdain for human rights”.
“Rewarding an officer who is under investigation for a human rights violation suggests that the Army seems to be
willing to not just overlook,
but actually valorise an act
of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment amounting
to torture,” said Aakar Patel, Executive Director at Amnesty International India.