*GENEVA (KMS) – The new report by the Office of the UN High Commissionerfor Human Rights while stating that the accountability for violationscommitted by Indian forces remains virtually non-existent in OccupiedKashmir has recommended the formation of a commission of inquiry by theHuman Rights Council to conduct a comprehensive, independent, internationalinvestigation into human rights violations in the territory.*
The 43-page report published on Monday said that despite highest number ofcivilians killed near gunfight sites there was no information about any newinvestigation into excessive use of force leading to casualties, adding,“No prosecutions have been reported and it does not appear that Indianforces have been asked to re-evaluate or change their crowd-controltechniques or rules of engagement”.
According to data gathered by Srinagar-based group, the Jammu and KashmirCoalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), the report says, “around 160 civilianswere killed in 2018, which is believed to be the highest number in over adecade”.
The report maintained that Indian authorities have made no attempt toaddress serious concerns about access to justice and impunity for humanrights violations committed in occupied Kashmir, adding that the ArmedForces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which effectively bestows immunity onsecurity forces from prosecution in civilian courts for their conduct byrequiring the Indian Government to sanction all prospective prosecutionsagainst such personnel, remains a key obstacle to accountability.
It further said that in nearly three decades that the law has been in forcein Jammu and Kashmir, there has not been a single prosecution of armedforces’ personnel granted by the Indian government, adding that the IndianArmy has used section 7 to block prosecution of its personnel even byindependent federal investigation agencies. Despite repeated calls fromnational and international human rights experts to repeal the AFSPA, Indianauthorities have given no indication that this law will be repealed oramended in Jammu and Kashmir, the report underlined.
The report said that the so-called cordon and search operations, amuch-criticized military strategy employed by the Indian forces in theearly 1990s, was reintroduced in the Kashmir Valley in 2017, leading to arange of human rights violations. The report citing an example said that on22 June 2018, a 55-year-old man, Mohammed Yousuf Rathar, was shot whenIndian forces entered his home in Nowshehra village of Anantnag (Islamabad)district as part of a local operation and he died before reaching thehospital. Giving another instance, it said that on 26 September 2018, a24-year-old man, Mohammed Saleem Malik, was killed during a cordon andsearch operation near his house in Srinagar’s Noorbagh area.
Turning to the devastative effects of pellet shotguns, the report said thatdespite international concerns at the alarming numbers of deaths andlife-altering injuries caused by the forces, regular use of shotguns as ameans of crowd control – even though they are not deployed elsewhere inIndia – they continue to be employed, leading to further deaths and seriousinjuries. It said that on June 16 2018, a civilian was killed in Anantnag(Islamabad) district of South Kashmir after being hit by metal pelletsfired by the forces at protesters returning from Eid prayers.
The deceased, it added, had pellet wounds in his neck and throat. Inanother incident, the report said, that a 19-month-old girl was hit by themetal pellets in her right eye on 25 November 2018 and though the metalpellets were successfully removed from her eye but doctors were unsurewhether she would regain her eyesight completely. Citing information fromSrinagar’s Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital, where most pellet shotguninjured are treated, the report said that 1,253 people have been blinded bythe metal pellets used by the Indian forces from mid-2016 to end of 2018.
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It said that the authorities in J&K continue to use various forms ofarbitrary detention to target protesters, political dissidents and othercivil society actors. It maintained that a number of laws in the territoryprovide the legal basis for arbitrary detention, but the one that is usedmost frequently to stifle protests and political dissent is the draconianPublic Safety Act (PSA).
The PSA does not provide for a judicial review of detention, and theauthorities have defied orders by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court torelease people detained under this law by issuing successive detentionorders, it said and added that this practice has been used to keep peoplearbitrarily in detention for several weeks, months, and, in some cases,years.
Citing the case of pro-freedom leader Masarrat Aalam, who was firstdetained under the PSA in 2010, was charged for the 37th time in November2018, it said that despite being repeatedly detained under the PSA,Masarrat Aalam has never been convicted of any charges. Several pro-freedompolitical leaders were detained under PSA in 2018 and 2019 and continue tobe imprisoned, the report added.
The report said that as described in the June 2018 report of OHCHR, therehave been persistent claims of torture by security forces in IOK. Citingthe case of Rizwan Pandit, a school principal from Pulwama district aged 29who died while in police custody between 18 and 19 March 2019, the reportsaid that it appears to have been tortured while in custody. It said thatRizwan was picked up from his home in Awantipora allegedly by the NationalInvestigation Agency on March 18 and was pronounced dead by police on March19.
It further said that in 2018, several journalists and human rightsdefenders – mostly based in the Kashmir Valley – reported that social mediaplatforms Twitter and Facebook had taken actions against a number ofaccounts for various Kashmir-related content, including removing such postsor suspending user accounts. The report said that according to UNESCO, theKashmir Valley continues to be an extremely dangerous place for journalistsas 21 journalists have lost their lives in Kashmir Valley since 1990.UNESCO noted that such assaults had made journalism a hazardous professionduring the 1990s.