HomeArticleUnder BJP govt extra judicial killings in Occupied Kashmir risen sharply

Under BJP govt extra judicial killings in Occupied Kashmir risen sharply

There is marginable increase being witnessed in extra judicial killings of innocent people by Indian force since fascist Modi became prime minister of India.

The latest wave of extrajudicial killings come amid the BJP government’s ongoing crackdown in Kashmir since it revoked Jammu and Kashmir state’s constitutional autonomy in August 2019 and split it into two federally governed territories.

Hundreds of people remain detained without charge, critics are threatened with arrest, and access to the internet is limited. There also have been several allegations of new arrests, torture, and ill-treatment by security forces. The government has also used harsh counterterrorism and sedition laws to clamp down on peaceful critics.

The Indian army claims that the militants were killed in a retaliatory gunfight after they fired on the security forces during a search operation in Shopian district, and were then buried in Baramulla district. But their families in Jammu, who identified them from photographs of the killings circulated on social media, said they were laborers who had gone in search of work. Following demands from political parties for an inquirythe army said it will investigate.

Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch has said that “There can be no end to the cycle of violence in Kashmir if security forces are not held accountable for their past and current abuses.”

The families of those killed identified them and said they last had contact with them on July 17, after they reached Shopian to look for work. The families assumed they may have been quarantined when they could not get in touch after that. They identified their relatives from the photos uploaded on social media of those killed in the Shopian armed encounter and have since filed a missing person report at the police station. The police have said they are also investigating the killings.

Any army investigation into the recent killings will be meaningless because the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) gives the security forces effective immunity from prosecution for serious human rights abuses. It grants the military wide powers to arrest, shoot to kill, and occupy or destroy property in counterinsurgency operations.

Since the law came into force in Jammu and Kashmir in 1990, the Indian government has not granted permission to prosecute any security force personnel in civilian courts.

Human Rights Watch and others have long documented how the law has become a tool of state abuse, oppression, and discrimination, and called for its repeal. Affected residents, activists, government-appointed committees, politicians, and United Nations human rights bodies have criticized the law.

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