Srinagar: Taking a dig at the armed forces tribunal court for granting bail to five dismissed Army personnel convicted in the killing of three villagers, who were wearing Pathan suits, in Machil fake encounter in 2010, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today said people cannot be killed for what they wear. Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter, the working president of the main opposition National Conference (NC) Mr Abdullah said, “They wore Pathan suits, which are worn by terrorists…..”. What an unbelievably scary justification. You can be killed for what you wear!” Mr Abdullah was reacting to reports that the tribunal, which granted bail this week to Colonel Dinesh Pathania, Captain Upendra, Havildar Devender Kumar, Lance Naik Lakhmi, Lance Naik Arun Kumar from 4 Rajput Regiment and rifleman Abas Hussain of the Territorial Army, justified it by saying that it believed the dead were terrorists because they wore Pathan suits. The Army personnel were convicted by a general court martial in the Machil fake encounter. They were found guilty of killing three civilians Reyaz Ahmad, Mohammad Shafi and Shahzad Ahmad after they were handed over to Army by a counter insurgent Bashir. They were later labeled as militants killed in an encounter, evoking massive protests after they were identified by their families in a photograph. The Army COI had completed the trial in the case in December 2013, but it took almost two more years to confirm the sentence in September 2015. However, the Armed Forces Tribunal recently granted them bail in the case.
