Former chief minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday said the decision of the Armed Forces Tribunal to suspend the life sentence of an army captain over the Shopian fake encounter was another reminder from the Centre to Kashmiris that their blood has no worth, echoing the father of one of the dead men who said “Muslims have no value in this country.”

The AFT has suspended the life sentence handed to Captain Bhoopendra Singh by a court martial, questioning its findings. The decision kicked up a political storm here.

Omar told a gathering in north Kashmir’s Tangmarg that the Centre will have to hold elections in Jammu and Kashmir, give it a government and allow people to raise their voice again.

“This is because the situation is not good. I don’t know why we are reminded by the Centre, time and again, that our blood is cheap, that our blood has no worth. When our people are killed, nobody has any concern for that,” Omar said.

“I was surprised by yesterday’s news about an army officer who got three men from Rajouri in a fake encounter in Shopian. He was punished, got life imprisonment, not by a court but in the army’s own court martial proceedings. Yesterday he was set free. How sad it can get.”

Reports from Delhi said that Justice Rajendra Menon, who heads the tribunal, said the court-martial proceedings had taken on record certain evidence that was “inadmissible” and “not convincing” enough to hold Singh guilty at the present stage. He said the tribunal was “prima facie” convinced that the “applicant being acquitted after hearing of this appeal cannot be ruled out” based on the "material available on record”.

Mohammad Yousuf Chowhan, whose son along with his two cousins were killed in Shopian, told this newspaper on Monday that Muslims can get "no justice from the courts" in the country as he expressed shock over the verdict.

Former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday said she spoke to the father who was “utterly devastated” by the AFT decision.

"Raises serious questions on the sanctity of the judicial process,” she posted on X.

Omar compared the army captain’s bail with Kashmiris languishing in jails “without any allegation” but denied bail, and the termination of scores of government employees without investigation to prove the alleged discrimination faced by Kashmiris.

“For small issues, homes of people are bulldozed. That time they don’t care but a man who was found guilty here and was imprisoned for life… will now roam freely. We are being reminded again and again that our blood has no value, there is no regard for our emotions and they don’t care about our grief,” he said.