Fake encounters with imaginary militants a pretext for extortion

Manjakote residents reject police claim of gunfight
GK Sept 5

SHAFIQ MIR


Rajouri, Sept 4: The residents of Manjakote and Hayatrpura villages of border district Rajouri couldn’t offer Namaz-e-Taraweeh on Wednesday evening, as according to them, the local Station House Officer of Police staged a fake gunfight and created an atmosphere of fear. The residents said the SHO wanted to make the “gunfight” as a pretext for arresting locals on charges of helping militants and extort money from them. Police, however, said that militants attacked a police party which had laid an ambush.
The residents said the firing which started around 9 PM when people of these two villages were offering prayers. They said they didn’t offer the full prayers and left the mosque for cover midway.
The village head, Talib Hussain Khan, said the “drama of firing was staged by local SHO with an intention to pick the local people and collect money from them.” Talib Hussain urged senior police officers to investigate the facts of this “so called gunfight, otherwise the issue would have serious consequences.”
He said the people of the area would come on streets on Friday to protest against “this drama.”
The deputy superintendent of police Rajouri K S Jasrotia, however, said the militants taking advantage of darkness and the cover of maize crop fled from the scene after attacking the ambush party.