ADIL AKHZER & NIRUPAMA SUBRAMANIAN/ An Awaaz South Asia Exclusive

The Army has shunted out a Brigadier from command after three civilians died in custody of a local army unit stationed in the Poonch-Rajouri area of Jammu & Kashmir, officials have told Awaaz South Asia.

The Brigadier rank officer was with the Rashtriya Rifles in Rajouri, a special counter-insurgency force within the Army, raised for the purpose of fighting militancy in J&K in 1990.

The unprecedented decision by the Army top brass to remove the officer came in the wake of the deaths of the three civilians in custody, a day after they – along with six other men – were picked up for questioning within hours of a deadly ambush Thursday on army vehicles in the Bufliaz area of Surankote in Poonch.

Four soldiers were killed in the ambush, the fifth such incident this year. Two of the four soldiers who were killed by Pakistan-sponsored terrorists, top defence officials told Awaaz South Asia, were decapitated.

The Northern Army Commander Lt. Gen Upendra Dwivedi, led a wreath laying ceremony for the four soldiers in Rajouri today. 

The three men who died in Army custody were identified as Safeer Ahmad, Shabir Ahmad and Showkat Hussain, residents of a village near the site of the ambush.In the local Gujar community.

Anger at the deaths, that took place allegedly due to torture in custody, threatened to snowball as videos with disturbing visuals filtered out of the Army camp. The administration responded by cutting off the internet swiftly on Saturday. It has not been restored yet.

Awaaz South Asia has seen the videos whose veracity has been confirmed by officials,

This is the first alleged case of civilian deaths in Army custody in J&K in memory. The removal of the senior army officer is an admission, both of the serious nature of the crime. Brigadier P Acharya was the Commander of the 13 sector, based in Rajouri's Thanamandi area. Defence sources said he was removed as an internal inquiry is being conducted into how the three civilians died. Other removals are likely.

This is only the second time that an officer of a rank as senior as a Brigadier has been removed from his post in J&K in recent years. In 2016, the Commander of the Brigade headquarters at Uri was shunted out after the attack in September, reportedly by the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed group, which led to India's "surgical strike" across the Line of Control.

Through Friday night, administration officials and Army officers negotiated with the families of the dead men, announcing on Saturday morning monetary compensation and government jobs to family members, but demands for justice and accountability grew, including from political leaders.

“It was unfortunate that people who had no link to the ambush were picked up following the ambush and they died in Army custody. Look at the viral videos,” National Conference’s President for Pir Panjal zone, Javed Ahmad Rana told Awaaz South Asia, stating that the region is moving through a “dangerous” phase.

Rana said he spoke to senior officers including Lt. Gen Dwivedi after the incident and demanded that those responsible for the civilian’s death face action.

“He assured me that action will be taken (against those responsible),” he said.

The government and Army would have also weighed the risks of losing public support in an area where local communities have a two-decade-long history of active assistance to security forces in countering militancy in the area.

The Army wrote on X Saturday that a probe was underway regarding the three civilian deaths. “Reports have been received regarding three civilian deaths in the area. The matter is under investigation. Indian Army stands committed to extending full support and cooperation in the conduct of investigations,” it said, but refrained from commenting on how they had died.

The victims were buried in their village on Saturday amid tight security, with only locals allowed to participate.

Noor Ahmad, brother of the deceased Safeer Ahmad, told Awaaz South Asia that the administration has said it will pay compensation of Rs 20 lakh each to the families. The Army has also separately promised compensation.

He said five more people who were among the injured are currently in the Army hospital, being treated for their torture injuries.

“Some villagers have gone to meet the injured today,” he said.

Sidiq Mohamad, Panch of Topa Pir village and uncle of the deceased Showkat told Awaaz South Asia that on Friday morning, army men came to the village and took nine people.

He said he informed the local police immediately when this happened.

“We kept calling the Army and police…on Friday midnight, finally they showed us the dead bodies of three people at Bufliaz Army camp,” Sidiq Mohamad said, adding that the injured were also shown to them, and their condition was bad.

He said the villagers now want justice. “We have always stood with the Army. Everyone is shocked how they can do this. They killed our people for no reason,” he said. “We want justice and action against those who killed these innocent men.”

Asked about the videos viral on social media, Sidiq said those were "authentic" and all those in the video "were from the village, including his nephew."

There has been a rise in attacks on the army in the Jammu region over the last three years. Officials say the tight security control in Kashmir saw cross-border militants shift their attention south of the Pir Panjal range, to the Poonch-Rajouri districts.

In the late 1990s, Surankote had turned into terror central, with various jihadist groups of Pakistani origin establishing parallel power centres in villages. The local Gujar community fought alongside the Army to clean out the hills above Surankote in an operation called Sarpvinash.

The spate of incidents since October 21 has raised fears in the area that attempts are on again by Pakistan-based terrorist groups to re-establish themselves in these areas. According to Gen. Dwivedi, there remain about 20-25 militants in the area, but clearly the Army has not been able to cope with this menace.

In the five attacks this year alone, 20 soldiers have been killed, including two officers of Captain rank. Members of the highly trained elite Special Forces were among those killed in two of the incidents. After a gap of over 17 years, the area has once again become a terror hotspot – in October 2021,  five soldiers were killed in an encounter in Chamrer forests in Poonch district's Surankote area, and four more were killed as they tried to track down the perpetrators.

The security forces have been forced to beef up their presence. In an order issued on Saturday, Jammu and Kashmir Police posted three new deputy superintendents in Poonch and Rajouri districts to strengthen the Special Operations Group (SOG), an anti-terror unit in the police force.

Meanwhile, the killing of a retired police officer of the J&K police in the Valley highlighted the fragile security situation in the Union Territory. Mohammed Shafi Mir, a former Senior Superintendent of Police, was reciting the azaan, the call for prayer, from a mosque at village Sheeri where he was living in retirement, when unidentified men fired at him inside the mosque. Police said that he had been shot by terrorist. He was shifted to hospital, but was declared dead by the doctors. Before this incident, the village had been militancy free for years.