On November 9, a group of 47 ‘‘militants’’ laid down their arms before Director General of J-K Police Gopal Sharma and General Officer Commanding of Army’s 16 Corps Ashok Kapur at Nagrota in full media glare.Three weeks later, the J-K police has found that 27 among these ‘‘surrendered militants’’ had nothing to do with militancy and were desperate unemployed men. They had been promised jobs by a local Congress activist and taken to Delhi. They ended up in the Army’s Nagrota camp where they posed as militants and lined up for the surrender ceremony. ‘‘They were not genuine militants. They were not eligible for surrender,’’ DGP Gopal Sharma told The Indian Express. ‘‘We didn’t know then but later when we conducted their verification, they were found to be not genuine.’’ Sharma, however, said that all the men who surrendered at Nagrota were not fake militants. ‘‘There were genuine militants from Doda,’’ he said. ‘‘We are investigating the case. We are probing whether these people were duped into doing this.’’ The Army, however, insists all the 47 were militants. ‘‘It is all a cooked-up story, conceived by some disgruntled and anti-national elements,’’ said the spokesman of Army’s 16 Corps, Col R K Sen. ‘‘It was a big ceremony held in front of the media and the antecedents of each one of the militants had been verified before the ceremony.’’ The true story behind this fake surrender, where top police and military officers showcased militants returning to mainstream in front of television cameras, surfaced when the chowkidar of Lolipora village in Chrar-e-Sharief, Ghulam Nabi Ganai, complained to the police that ‘‘a group of unemployed men had been duped by Bashir Ahmad alias Golu promising them jobs and forced into posing as militants and surrendering at the Nagrota camp.’’ In fact, the J-K police’s own intelligence unit in Budgam too had sent a detailed report about the issue. Interestingly, these ‘‘militants’’ had hidden their faces at the surrender ceremony and appealed to the media not to show their faces as they apprehended militant retribution. The Budgam police swung into action and picked up Bashir Ahmad alias Golu and registered a case. Golu, a surrendered militant and a Congress activist—who had been arrested and released twice by the security forces—along with another Congress activist, Mohammad Maqbool, had approached unemployed men in Hafru, Batapora, Charar-e-Sharief, Lolipora, Brinjun and few other villages. ‘‘These men, who include a 50-year-old as well, were promised government jobs,’’ a source in Budgam police revealed. ‘‘On June 2, all these men were picked up by Golu and his two other accomplices and taken to Delhi, where they were kept at an undisclosed place. From there, these 27 men were taken to Nagrota,’’ added the source. The investigation has also revealed that these men were given fake names as well as fake aliases before the surrender ceremony. ‘‘Each one of them has been paid Rs 25,000,’’ a source said. Pradesh Congress Chief Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed denies that the two accused were associated with the party. The police is now investigating whether Army officials were aware that these men were not militants. The J-K Police has already informed Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and top Army officers about the fake surrender. ‘‘We are looking for the main link between Bashir Ahmad Golu, his accomplice and the surrender ceremony,’’ a police source said.
