The teenagers died after soldiers fired at a car on the outskirts of Srinagar on Monday, while another youngster was critically wounded.
“We take responsibility for the death of the two boys in Kashmir,” the chief of the army’s northern command, D.S. Hooda, told reporters in Srinagar late Friday in televised remarks.
“We admit a mistake was made… there was some information about a white car with terrorists. Obviously, the identity was mistaken in this case,” the lieutenant-general added.
Hooda promised an investigation into the deaths that would be conducted with “the highest standard of transparency”.
Human rights critics accuse Indian security forces — estimated to number half a million in Kashmir — of committing frequent rights abuses while fighting insurgents.
Indian officials say all accusations are investigated and the guilty are punished. However, punishments are rarely made public and soldiers are often tried by the army itself.
Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said the latest killings had marred the political atmosphere, already strained by the devastating floods.
“Such killings have no place in an otherwise improving security environment where militancy incidents are at record low levels,” Abdullah tweeted this week
Anger has been mounting in the scenic Kashmir valley over the killings, with the families of the dead youths rejecting the army’s offer of one million rupees ($16,283) as compensation.
“The blood of my 14-year-old son is not so cheap that I would barter it. I reject this compensation,” Mohammad Yousuf Bhat, one of the boys’ fathers, was quoted as saying by the Times of India newspaper on Saturday. -AFP
