Qaisar Mansoor
Recently, Indian Supreme Court-appointed Commission of Inquiry probing the alleged encounter killing of four suspects in the gang-rape and murder of a young veterinarian in Hyderabad in 2019 has found they were “deliberately” fired upon by the police and that the entire version of the cops was “concocted” and “unbelievable”.
It is pertinent to mention here that Indian forces continue to kill innocent people in fake encounters not only in occupied Kashmir but also in other states, particularly the North East. “Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel tabled the Justice V K Agrawal Commission report in the state assembly.
The commission probed the killing of eight tribals in Bastar’s Edesmetta village in 2013 found that none of those slain was a Maoist and that security forces fired in panic at tribals celebrating a local festival.” In rare cases, dead bodies of innocent civilians killed in fake encounters are exhumed, army personnel involved are court-martialed and punished.
For instance, Indian army “sentenced five of its personnel, including two officers, to life imprisonment for staging the killing of three Kashmiri civilians in the Macchil area of Kupwara district in 2010 and branding them as foreign militants for rewards and remunerations.” India has registered 813 cases of encounter killings in the last six years.
It means one such case has been registered almost every three days since April 2016 in the country. Since 2016, Chhattisgarh recorded the most extrajudicial killing cases at 259, followed by Uttar Pradesh at 110 and Assam with 79. Uttar Pradesh saw the highest number of encounter killing cases in 2017-18, coincidentally the year BJP’s government came into power in the state. In the past one year, Jammu and Kashmir with 38 has reported the most extrajudicial killing cases in India, followed by Chhattisgarh at 28, Assam with 17, and Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand recording nine cases each. NHRC has recommended a total compensation of Rs 7.16 crore in the last six years. Encounter or extrajudicial killings violate the fundamental rights of offenders given in the Constitution of India.
Every person has a right to life, liberty and equality before the law. No law in India exclusively defines encounter killings but it is still classified under “Cases Registered against State Police Personnel for Human Right Violation” in the National Crime Records Bureau.
Since 2000, over 80 major fake encounters have been reported in occupied Kashmir in which more than 160 innocent Kashmiris were killed. European Parliament has passed an “urgency resolution on mass graves in Kashmir” that strongly condemns, inter alia, enforced disappearance and unlawful killing of Kashmiris.
Kashmiris from all walks of life have been demanding the establishment of an international commission to look into `disappearances’ and mass graves. So far, the UNO has not fulfilled its demand.
India is currently hobnobbing with the USA in the anti-China Quad. It is sure that, in the unipolar world, the world community will not turn its attention to its gory tactics for repressing minorities in various Indian states. Web Desk
