Srinagar: Rights groups here Thursday released the names of 500 people, including 235 army personnel and 31 pro-government militants, for their alleged involvement in incidents of rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir during the last 20 years.
“The intention of naming army, paramilitary, police and government-backed militants is to remove the veil of anonymity and secrecy that has sustained impunity,” International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Indian Administered Kashmir (IPTK) and Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) told reporters here.
“Out of 214 cases, a list emerges of 500 individual perpetrators — 235 army personnel, 123 paramilitary personnel, 111 Jammu and Kashmir police personnel and 31 government-backed militants,” the report said.
Among the alleged perpetrators are two major generals, three brigadiers, nine colonels, three lieutenant colonels, 78 majors and 25 captains of the army; 37 officers of paramilitary forces; a retired director general of state police and a serving inspector general of police.
“The cases presented in this report reveal that there is a policy not to genuinely investigate or prosecute the armed forces (personnel) for human rights violations. There is an occasional willingness to order compensatory relief but not to bring the perpetrators to justice,” the report said.
Khurram Parvez, coordinator of the tribunal said: “The tribunal and APDP cannot conclusively pronounce on the guilt of any of the alleged perpetrators, but it is clear that enough evidence exists to warrant further investigations and prosecutions.”
The term “disappeared persons” is used to describe people lifted either by the security forces or the militants during the last 23 years of violence in the state, whose whereabouts were never heard of after that.
– IANS
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