Ludhiana: Instead to condemning the blatant abuse of human rights by its official the Indian Army yesterday awarded ‘Commendation Certificate’ to Major Leetul Gogoi who had used a Kashmiri youth as human shield by tying him in front to an Army jeep. Its’ an open and official endorsement the act of atrocities on civilian Kashmiris by Army personnel in Indian occupied Kashmir.
An English vernacular notes that [t]he award is seen as a backing for the action of the officer, who belongs to the 53 Rashtriya Rifles, even as the Army maintained that a court of inquiry (CoI) into the incident was “under finalisation.”
Two days ago, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had, in an opinion piece in Indian Express newspaper, had applauded Major Gogoi’s act.
The controversial Major of the Indian army came in the spotlight after a video, shot during the April 9 Srinagar Lok Sabha bypoll and posted on the social media, showed a man tied on the bonnet of an Army jeep at Budgam in Jammu and Kashmir.
A probe by the Jammu and Kashmir Police, which lodged an FIR against the security forces in light of the incident, revealed that it was Major Gogoi who had tied the man to the jeep’s bonnet as a “human shield”, notes The Tribune (TT).
A court of inquiry was ordered subsequently.
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