Indian Army Indicts 9 Soldiers in Killing of 2 Civilians in Kashmir

Kashmiri women shouted anti-Indian slogans on Nov. 4, during the funeral of two teenagers killed by the Indian Army

NEW DELHI — The Indian Army has indicted nine of its soldiers in the killing of two civilians early this month in the Indian-administered portion of Kashmir, moving with unusual swiftness toward a court-martial in a case that provoked antigovernment demonstrations. Two young men were killed and two others were
wounded when troops opened fire on their vehicle because it failed to stop at a checkpoint. Within days of the incident, the army acknowledged that the killing had been a mistake, saying the soldiers had been told to watch for a white car that was supposedly carrying men suspected of being terrorists. The case fanned anti-Indian sentiment just weeks before state elections in Jammu and Kashmir, where the governing Bharatiya Janata Party hopes to expand its influence. In the days after the killing, separatist organizations called a strike, and crowds of protesters threw stones at security forces.Muhammad Yusuf Bhat said he had asked his son Faisal, 14, to pick out curtains that day, and he and his friends decided to drive to Chhatergam, a nearby village, because the shopkeeper had told him to return in a half-hour. Mr. Bhat said the troops opened fire on the car in which his son was riding with no warning. “What we want is that the soldiers be put before a civil court, and the government must punish them according to whatever punishment is set aside for murder,” he said in a telephone interview. He said he would refuse any financial compensation for Faisal’s death. “My conscience does not allow me to take any money from the government that killed my boy,” Mr. Bhat said. The older sister of another of the victims in the encounter said relatives of her brother, Mehraj ud din Dar, 21, tried to call his mobile phone repeatedly when he did not return home that day. The sister, Waheeda, who like many Indians uses only one name, said a soldier eventually answered Mehraj’s phone and said her brother had been wounded. The family later learned that he had been killed. “We want nothing more, nothing less, than the nine men be hanged unto death,” Waheeda said