Sheikh Mushtaq
SRINAGAR, Feb 5 (2007) – Indian authorities have launched investigations into allegations that at least three innocent civilians were killed by security forces in Kashmir late last year, officials said on Monday, following public anger.
The investigations by the army and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) began after news reports said the three men had been rounded up, killed in mock gunbattles and then passed off as Muslim militants fighting New Delhi’s rule.
“Based on reports appearing in the media on alleged involvement of the army/RR (Rashtriya Rifles) in fake encounters in Ganderbal area, the army has ordered an inquiry to investigate these cases,” army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel A.K. Mathur said.
“Disciplinary action will be initiated if anyone is found guilty.” Ganderbal is on the outskirts of Srinagar, Indian Kashmir’s main city.
The Rashtriya Rifles, a counter-insurgency arm of the army, operates together with local police and the CRPF against militants in the Himalayan territory.
Over the weekend, authorities arrested four policemen — including two senior officers — accused of killing the three men people in Ganderbal and passing them off as militants.
“According to initial investigations, army and CRPF personnel also participated with local police in two fake encounters,” said a police official, who did not want to be identified.
Local officials say that a policy of giving promotions and cash rewards to security forces for killing militants had led to abuses in the Himalayan territory. Human rights group also blame a culture of impunity.
Police said they have so far exhumed at least five bodies as part of their investigation into the Ganderbal killings. The dead men had been passed off as Pakistani or Kashmiri militants.
Kashmir’s main separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat (freedom) Conference, demanded an impartial probe into what they say are thousands of disappearances since the insurgency began in 1989.
Thousands of people shouting “punish the killers” took to the streets in Kokernag area, 75 km (50 miles) south of Srinagar, the hometown of two of the victims.
“Down with security forces,” shouted the protesters, who also tried to torch the house of a policemen accused in the killings.
Mohammad Yasin Malik, a senior separatist leader, said he planned to begin a three-day fast and called for a general strike on Tuesday.
“It is no longer wise or fair to treat Kashmir’s fake encounters as isolated instances of injustice,” leading TV journalist Barkha Dutt wrote in the Hindustan Times.
“Even conservative, official estimates say more than 1,000 men have “disappeared” in the the last two decades. Why then should this judicial probe be limited to investigating just five complaints?”
The separatist revolt in the scenic region has killed more than 40,000 people since it began in 1989, officials say. Human rights groups put the toll at about 60,000 dead or missing.
