Srinagar: Lack of accountability for past abuses committed by security forces persisted even as there were new allegations of torture and extrajudicial killings in Jammu and Kashmir, Human Rights Watch said in its latest report.
The New York based organization also termed as setback for accountability for security force abuses, the Armed Forces Tribunal’s decision in July last year, suspending the life sentences of five army personnel who were convicted in 2014 for a 2010 extrajudicial killing of three villagers in the Machil sector in Kupwara.
“In the first 10 months of 2017, there were 42 reported militant attacks in the state of Jammu and Kashmir in which 184 people were killed, including 44 security force personnel. Several were killed or injured as government forces attempted to contain violent protests.”
In May, it said, the army gave a commendation to an officer who used a bystander (Farooq Ahmad Dar) unlawfully as a “human shield” to evacuate security personnel and election staff from a mob in Jammu and Kashmir’s Budgam district.
As per police, Farooq along with one Hilal Ahmad Magrey had gone to a nearby to offer condolence and after spending some time left the village. On reaching near Utligam crossing, he was lifted by army during stone pelting and was tied to bonnet of the vehicle as “human shield under threat and kept him under wrongful confinement and has been paraded/moved around with in the area and was later released.”
The HRW report says the government failed to review and repeal the “abusive” Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), in force in Jammu and Kashmir and in parts of India’s northeastern region, “which gives soldiers who commit violations effective immunity from prosecution.”
“At time of writing, the government had yet to comply with a Supreme Court ruling civilian authorities should investigate all allegations of violations by troops.”
Several parts of India, it said, witness State governments resorted to blanket internet shutdowns either to prevent violence or social unrest, or to respond to an ongoing law and order problem. By November, they had imposed 60 internet shutdowns, 27 of these in Jammu and Kashmir.
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