NEW DELHI, Feb 9 (1995) – The Indian army plans to court martial several troops, including some officers, for a rape, arson and looting spree in a village in strife-torn Kashmir, the Indian Express reported Thursday.
A high-level inquiry by the army had “established charges of rape, molestation, arson and looting against the troops of the elite Rashtriya Rifles,” a paramilitary unit under army command, the daily said.
The army investigation found that the troops went on the rampage on January 11 in the tiny village of Larve-Jagir in Kashmir, where Moslem guerrillas are waging a bloody separatist campaign.
“The troops had gone berserk and the officers remained silent spectators,” the Express quoted army sources as saying in Srinagar, the winter capital of Kashmir, India’s only Moslem-majority state.
An army spokesman here declined to comment on the report.
The violence reportedly occurred during a search operation by the Rashtriya Rifles in Larve-Jagir, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Srinagar, during which a member of the outlawed Hizbul Mujahideen militant group was arrested.
The soldiers allegedly burned down 14 houses and villagers charged the troops with rape, looting and theft. The Express said at least one woman had identified two soldiers as her rapists.
The Express said the Rashtriya Rifles had since been replaced in the village by the paramilitary Jammu and Kashmir Rifles.
“To make amends, the army authorities have undertaken reconstruction of all the houses burnt in the village,” it added.
International human rights groups have frequently accused security forces in Kashmir of committing widespread violations of human rights and of killing suspected militants in cold blood.
The Moslem separatist campaign has left more than 10,000 people dead in Kashmir since 1989.
