16 Army personnel booked for attacking police station in J&K’s Kupwara
By : Yusuf Jameel
Update: 2024-05-30 07:28 GMT
SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir police have named 16 Army personnel including three officers in an FIR, accusing them of attacking a police station in frontier Kupwara district and thrashing police men on Tuesday night.
The CCTV footage of the police station shows the Army personnel barging into the premises and attacking the cops. A team of the Police Station Kupwara had earlier during the investigation of a case raided the house of a Territorial Army (TA) jawan in Kupwara’s Batapora village and detained him for questioning which apparently angered the Army unit.
The FIR says that the accused barged into the police station and subsequently abducted a police official and injured several other policemen by kicking and beating them with rifle butts and sticks.
The police sources had on Wednesday said that four of the five injured policemen, including Constables Saleem Mushtaq and Zahoor Ahmad and Special Police Officers (SPOs) Imtiyaz Ahmad Malik and Rayees Khan were evacuated to Srinagar’s Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) for specialised treatment.
The Army had denied its men attacked the police station and shrugged the incident off by terming it as “minor differences” between the two sides. The Srinagar-based defence spokesman Lieutenant Colonel M.K. Sahu had in a statement said, “Reports of an altercation between police and army personnel and beating up therein of police personnel are mis founded and incorrect. Minor differences between the police personnel and a Territorial Army unit on an operational matter have been amicably resolved.”
But, as per the police FIR, three Army Lieutenant Colonels of the 160 TA- Ankit Sood, Raju Chauhan and Nikhil -and others have been booked for attempt to murder, rioting, abduction and robbery among other charges under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Arms Act. They have been accused of barging into the police station premises “unauthorisedly” at around 9.40 pm and “collectively and without any provocation in the form of unlawful assembly severely attacking the staff and officers present at the police station with rifle butts, kicks and sticks.”
Some of the TA personnel who were allegedly part of the group have been named in the FIR as Irfan Ahmed, Ashiq Ahmed, Muhammad Amin, Ghulam Hassan, Arif Ahmed, Ishaq, Rajiv, Gulzar Ahmed and Fayaz Ahmed Khan “who and others were being led by Lieutenant Colonels Ankit Sood, Rajiv Chauhan and Nikhil.”
The FIR also said that after being informed about the attack, senior police officers with their teams reached the police station and that upon seeing them arriving there the Army personnel and officers brandished their weapons and snatched the mobile phones of the injured personnel and SHO Police Station Kupwara Inspector Muhammad Ishaq and while fleeing they forcibly took Head Constable Ghulam Rasool with them who was set free after 3 am on Wednesday.
A team of police officers headed by Deputy Superintendent Peerzada Muhahid-ul-Haq is investigating the case registered under sections 186, 332, 307, 342, 147, 149, 392, 397 and 365 IPC, and 7/5 Arms Act, the police sources said.
The CCTV footage of the police station shows the Army personnel barging into the premises and attacking the cops. A team of the Police Station Kupwara had earlier during the investigation of a case raided the house of a Territorial Army (TA) jawan in Kupwara’s Batapora village and detained him for questioning which apparently angered the Army unit.
The FIR says that the accused barged into the police station and subsequently abducted a police official and injured several other policemen by kicking and beating them with rifle butts and sticks.
The police sources had on Wednesday said that four of the five injured policemen, including Constables Saleem Mushtaq and Zahoor Ahmad and Special Police Officers (SPOs) Imtiyaz Ahmad Malik and Rayees Khan were evacuated to Srinagar’s Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) for specialised treatment.
The Army had denied its men attacked the police station and shrugged the incident off by terming it as “minor differences” between the two sides. The Srinagar-based defence spokesman Lieutenant Colonel M.K. Sahu had in a statement said, “Reports of an altercation between police and army personnel and beating up therein of police personnel are mis founded and incorrect. Minor differences between the police personnel and a Territorial Army unit on an operational matter have been amicably resolved.”
But, as per the police FIR, three Army Lieutenant Colonels of the 160 TA- Ankit Sood, Raju Chauhan and Nikhil -and others have been booked for attempt to murder, rioting, abduction and robbery among other charges under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Arms Act. They have been accused of barging into the police station premises “unauthorisedly” at around 9.40 pm and “collectively and without any provocation in the form of unlawful assembly severely attacking the staff and officers present at the police station with rifle butts, kicks and sticks.”
Some of the TA personnel who were allegedly part of the group have been named in the FIR as Irfan Ahmed, Ashiq Ahmed, Muhammad Amin, Ghulam Hassan, Arif Ahmed, Ishaq, Rajiv, Gulzar Ahmed and Fayaz Ahmed Khan “who and others were being led by Lieutenant Colonels Ankit Sood, Rajiv Chauhan and Nikhil.”
The FIR also said that after being informed about the attack, senior police officers with their teams reached the police station and that upon seeing them arriving there the Army personnel and officers brandished their weapons and snatched the mobile phones of the injured personnel and SHO Police Station Kupwara Inspector Muhammad Ishaq and while fleeing they forcibly took Head Constable Ghulam Rasool with them who was set free after 3 am on Wednesday.
A team of police officers headed by Deputy Superintendent Peerzada Muhahid-ul-Haq is investigating the case registered under sections 186, 332, 307, 342, 147, 149, 392, 397 and 365 IPC, and 7/5 Arms Act, the police sources said.