Who has the mandate to penalise guilty men in uniform?
Syed Junaid Hashmi
JAMMU, Apr 19: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah would be the fourth Chief Minister in a row to order probes into the allegations of custodial killings, enforced disappearances, rapes and other excesses against the security forces. But like the previous regimes, his government too is likely to suffer from improbability of action over the reports submitted to his office after thorough inquiry.
Those implicated would either go scot free or prefer silence over the repeated reminders of the respective courts including the Supreme Court of India. Statistics speak for themselves and emphatically bring out the fraility of the respective heads of the state government in Jammu and Kashmir against the wishes of government at New Delhi.
From BJP led NDA to Congress led UPA, the official tag line has been "penalising security forces for legally established crimes against humanity committed by them demoralises their morale and on the contrary encourages anti-national elements to spread their venomous anti-india agenda." Chief Ministers have miserably failed in ensuring justice to people in around 125 probes ordered against police and security forces.
Civilian killings have gone unabated and so have the probes. But official records make a mention of just 125 inquiries against 7965 killings since the popular government took over in Jammu and Kashmir in the year 1996. They further assert that out of 7965 civilians killed during the last 13 years, around 6500 were killed by militants.
Those left out are put in the category of collateral damage, a significant term used as a safeguard measure by security forces. Records establish the fact that respective Chief Ministers have never sought details of the collateral damage from the security forces and relied comprehensively on the official reports which the families of the victim and eyewitnesses of the incident have always contested.
From Farooq Abdullah in 1996 to present Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, all have failed miserably to convince centre about the impact which penalisation could have on the hearts and minds of the people across the state. A glaring example of ineffectiveness of heads of the state of Jammu and Kashmir in administering their "autonomous state" is the recent statement of Chief of the Army Staff Gen. Deepak Kapoor.
He said "AFSPA is needed to protect the troops legally." This statement comes at a time when Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in his recent statement in the legislative assembly assured that AFSPA would be revoked during his tenure. The statement of the army chief itself reflects "inviolability of the assurance" given by the Chief Minister of "autonomous Jammu and Kashmir" in the legislative assembly before the security agencies.
Omar is fourth in the row. His father Dr.Farooq Abdullah whose government was dismissed with the onset of militancy in the year 1990 returned to power under difficult circumstances in the year 1996 ordered more than 40 probes during his tenure but to no avail. His era saw massacre of Hindus at various places across the state apart from routine civilian killings, custodial disappearances, rapes, harassment, custodial killings and fake encounters.
Dreaded Special Operation Group of Jammu and Kashmir Police came into being. Counterinsurgents gained prominence in Kashmir valley. AFSPA was invoked in Jammu region in the year 1990. If his colleagues are to be believed, it was not the Chief Minister but the union home ministry which was operating on its own in Jammu and Kashmir. "They ordered and we had to oblige," said an insider.
The era saw bare minimum penalisation of the accused in various cases of human rights violation. Notable among various incidents of HR violations was the carnage of 35 Sikhs at Chattisinghpura in the year 2000, for which foreign militants were blamed.
However, this was short-lived since the a few days after massacre, security forces killed five persons in an "encounter" at Panchalthan village and claimed they were "foreign militants" responsible for the Sikh massacre. Later, in July 2002, DNA testing of the corpses proved that the five persons killed were civilians.
In continuation to this probe, a subsequent probe was ordered into Brackpora police firing incident in which eight persons were killed while scores injured when the Special Operations Group (GOG) of the police allegedly opened fire on peaceful demonstrators protesting at Brackpora against the disappearance of five persons of Brari-Angan.
The probe committee headed by Justice S.R. Pandian submitted the report and subsequently state government took some action but the officers supervising the entire operation have gone scot free and even managed promotions. A number of other probes ordered in the subsequent years met a similar fate.
And National Leaders say, "Violence was at its peak when we took over. We lost a number of our workers and leaders to the bullets of militants; yet we did not give up. Probes were ordered and even guilty were penalised but as far as Army, BSF and CRPF are concerned, they have been never been under the control of state government."
PDP patron and former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed who has been vociferously calling for revocation of AFSPA and withdrawal of troops failed to keep a check on the civilian killings during his three year tenure (Nov.2002 to Nov. 2005). The numbers had undoubtedly gone down but it is the same era when the then Chairman of State Human Rights Commission resigned in protest.
His argument was that state government did not act upon the recommendations of the commission and despite his repeated reminders, failed to act. It is the same era when healing touch policy was under implementation across the state. 43 Judicial/Magisterial/ Administrative inquiries were ordered during his three year tenure but who was penalised, when, where and how needs an analytical check.
The only noticeable achievement of this era was "revival of democracy" which ensured that justice remains elusive while politics over custodial killings, probes, withdrawals, revocations, rapes and disappearances gets rooted in the state's polity. The conviction in the first two probes ordered in 2002 by Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed is not forthcoming and of the subsequent orders, reports are missing from the home department.
16 probes were ordered in 2003, 14 in 2004 and 11 in 2005 by the regime led by PDP president Mufti Mohammed Sayeed. Ironically, Mufti has not even once blamed the central government for preventing penalisation of security forces. In turn, he has preferred talking about issues which have national and international ramifications.
Ask some of its leaders and they would tell you "You need concrete proof of their involvement in a custodial killing or enforced disappearance or alleged harassment. Those against whom sufficient evidence was available were penalised." But facts are in complete contrast to the arguments of these leaders.
Then came Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad in November 2005 who ordered around 28 enquiries but only two have been completed and reports submitted to the state government. He also formed a commission namely M.L.Koul Commission to inquire into accusations of killing of innocents in fake encounters by security forces with specific reference to a carpenter Abdul Rehman Paddar.
Paddar had been killed by security forces in a fake encounter and passed on as a foreign mercenary. During the governor's rule from July 10, 2007 to January 5, 2009, six probes were ordered of which only one report could prove allegations. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah day one saw killing of a deaf and dumb outside his residence by the security forces. The reason given for killing was that he did not stop when asked by the security personnel on duty. Till date, probes and enquiries ordered by his government is around 8. Not one has been made public.
Chief Minister also managed to take up the issue of human rights violations with Union Minister for Defence A.K.Antony and Home Minister P.C.Chidabram. Despite this, audacity of security forces and other agencies to kill innocent people under the garb of fighting militancy has largely remained unchecked in Jammu and Kashmir.
Curiously, every Chief Minister likes keeping the portfolio of home department with him and on a few occasions have appointed a junior minister for running some specific affair in the home department. Coalitions have also preferred allowing the party heading the government to keep the home portfolio with it.
Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed (Nov 2, 2002-Nov 2, 2005)
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2003 2004 2005 Total
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Incidents 3401 2565 1990 7956
Civilians killed 795 707 557 2059
Security forces killed 314 281 189 784
Militants killed 1494 976 917 3387
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Judicial/Magisterial/ Administrative inquiries ordered: 43
Action Taken: in 3-4 cases
Present Status: Accused officers reinstated
Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad (Nov 2, 2005- July 7, 2008)
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Year Incidents Civilians Security Forces Militants
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2006 1667 151 389 591
2007 887 82 131 358
2008 703 89 65 381
Total 3257 322 585 1330
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Judicial/Magisterial/ Administrative inquiries ordered: 28
Action Taken: 2 of which 1(Stayed in the court of law)
Present Status: No Action
WHAT THEY SAY?
Financial Commissioner (Home) Verghese Samuel : "I do not talk to people whom I do not know.Besides, this is not my subject"
Secretary Home Farooq Peer : No mechanism of publishing the Action Taken Reports.
Pvt. Secretary to FC (Home) : Send a written request and then we would respond.
Others officials in Home Department : The information is confidential.
[Kashmir Times]
Posted on 20 Apr 2009 by Webmaster
