Independent probe into HR violations in IHK recommended

Pakistan Times' Jammu & Kashmir Desk

SRINAGAR (IHK): The Independent Peoples Tribunal comprising members of Indian human rights and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) has recommended an independent probe into the human rights violations including disappearance, custodial killings, rape, torture, fake encounters and all other excesses perpetrated by Indian troops in occupied Kashmir, reports KMS.

The two-day Independent Peoples Tribunal consisted of jurists, Hosbet Suresh, DN Baruah, Malay Sengupta, Professor Anuradha Chenoy, Shujaat Bukhari, Professor Kamal Mithra Chenoy and Nusrat Andrabi documented in Srinagar the testimonies of the victims of Indian state terrorism.

Justice Suresh, former Chief Justice of the Mumbai High Court, reading out the recommendations before media men said that India should revoke all the draconian laws including Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and Public Safety Act (PSA) from the occupied territory. He said that the occupation authorities and Indian government should take immediate measures to address the sufferings of Kashmiri detainees languishing in various jails in and outside occupied Kashmir.

Criticising the Judicial system and Human Rights Commission of the occupied territory for their failure to provide justice to the victims of disappearances and other human rights violations, he deplored that Indian troops were violating the Geneva Convention.

The Tribunal called for immediate reduction of troops in the occupied territory, terming their concentration disproportionate to the civilian population. "The troops have flouted rules of war which has caused killing of a large number of civilians including women and children. Women including girls have been harassed, raped and gang raped and children in their early teens shot," the tribunal highlighted.

It pointed out that a number of cases filed in the district courts and High Court had been pending for years. The report termed Kunanposhpora gang rape case as grossest of rights violations.

The Chairperson of Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) Parveena Ahangar, in her testimony, said that 8,000 to 10,000 persons had disappeared in occupied Kashmir since 1989.