SRINAGAR, June 15: An application under the Right to Information Act (RTI) seeking information about the awards and promotions given to the police personnel for fighting militancy in Jammu and Kashmir was turned down by the government saying such a disclosure could be a “threat” to the state’s “security and strategic interests”.
“According to the Police, the disclosure of the information related to awards and promotions to its officials for anti-militancy operations since 1989 to 2012 would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, besides it also would be threat to the security, strategic interests of the State or may lead to incitement of an offence,” spokesperson of Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), a human rights organisation, said.
The JKCCS had filed the RTI application in April last.
The authorities have many a time in the past announced cash awards and higher ranks for police and paramilitary individuals who had killed any militants in the state.
However, the JKCCS said, the denial of information on such awards was an admission of it having been institutionalised.
“This denial is an admission by the Jammu and Kashmir Police that the state does have a policy of incentivising the arrests and killings of militants,” the spokesperson said.
The Army, police and paramilitaries have been fighting militants ever since an armed uprising against Indian rule erupted in the early nineties. Both the sides suffered casualties.
Last year an investigative wing of the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) reported to have found as many as 2156 bodies buried at 38 sites in the state. The bodies, the commission’s report revealed, were handed by the police to the local population for burial with bullet injuries and were classified as “unidentified militants.”
The JKCCS allege that it is the policy of awards and promotions that encouraged the security forces to carry out “extra-judicial killings”.
“This policy should end immediately as it continues to pose a threat to the human rights in Jammu and Kashmir,” the spokesperson said.
