Washington, April 22 : The US State Department has said that the police authorities in Kashmir routinely deny medical assistance and legal counsel to detainees, booked under the draconian Public Safety Act.The US State Department’s recent report on ‘Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012’ says that the PSA, which applies only in Kashmir, permits authorities to detain persons without charge or judicial review for as long as two years.
The US State Department in its recent report on Human Rights Practices for 2012, which was submitted to the US Congress by Secretary of State, John F Kerry, said that family members had no access to the detainees under PSA. The report said that the detainees were even not allowed to contact their lawyers during interrogation.
On its page 61, the report mentioned the rights violations in Kashmir while referring to the black law, Armed Forces Special Powers Act, extra-judicial killings by the Indian forces, presence of mass graves, political detentions, enforced disappearances and fake encounters.
The US State Department has said that the police in occupied Kashmir routinely deny medical assistance and legal counsel to detainees under the draconian Public Safety Act (PSA).
“During this time family members do not have access to detainees. Detainees are allowed access to a lawyer during interrogation. In practice, police in Jammu and Kashmir routinely employed arbitrary detention and denied detainees, particularly the destitute, access to lawyers and medical attention,” it adds. The report was submitted to the US Congress by Secretary of State John F Kerry on April 19.
On its 61-page chapter on human rights practices in India is mention of Jammu and Kashmir for the rights violations committed in the territory under AFSPA, extra-judicial killings by the Indian forces, presence of mass graves, political detentions, enforced disappearances and fake encounters.
According to the report, the government failed to prosecute or conduct impartial investigations of eight extra-judicial killings occurred due to AFPSA which provides immunity to troops operating in Kashmir.
“The Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society reported that eight extrajudicial killings by the armed forces took place during the year,” it said adding that the authorities had “failed to prosecute or conduct impartial investigations of these deaths by year’s end.” NGOs reported that the armed forces continued to kill civilians with impunity provided under the AFSPA in Jammu and Kashmir,” reads the report.
It mentions the fake encounters of Bandipora and Pathribal as respective cases of continuing extrajudicial killing and non-compliance, denial of states with recommendations of Human Rights Commission for CID investigation into police encounters.
“Some encounter killings were staged,” it says, describing the fake encounter at Bandipora. “On the night of July 24, an army informant, after first alerting local Army troops from the 27 Rashtriya Rifles that armed men were in the area, gave an AK-47 weapon to civilian Hilal Ahmed Dar and lured him to a location in Halmathpora forests in Kupwara. The Army troops opened fire when Dar reached the spot, killing him and injuring his friend. Authorities later arrested two informers for the Indian armys Rashtriya Rifles. The Army first claimed that Dar was a militant but later retracted the statement; on July 30, the public relations office for the Ministry of Defence announced that action would be taken against those found to be involved. On September 6, … police confirmed that the weapon allegedly owned by Dar was not his.”
“In September after the failure of the Army to comply with the court’s order, the court ordered the Army to issue court-martial against officers and soldiers accused in the two alleged fake encounters. In October fresh notices were issued to the accused officers and remained pending at year’s end,” the report says about the Pathribal fake encounter. To show trial delays in fake encounters, the report mentions 2010 Machil encounter in which, it says, the trial had not begun by the year’s end.
“In the 2010 Machil case, authorities charged three army officers, … of three young persons killed along the Line of Control in Kupwara, after protests forced the district magistrate to exhume the three bodies. …However, by year’s end the trial had not begun due to judicial delays,” the report says. The women in conflict situations like Kashmir were often victims of rape or threats of rape, it adds.
The report, quoting Syed Ali Geelani, says 891 persons were detained on political grounds in Kashmir while hundreds of persons were detained temporarily. The report also presents an account of detentions under “lapsed” POTA and TADA in Kashmir.
“There were conflicting reports during the year of how many persons remained detained under the POTA…,” it says. The report says the authorities prevented pro-freedom parties from holding public gatherings and assaulted them in peaceful protests.
“…. During periods of civil tension, authorities used the criminal procedure code to ban public assemblies or impose a curfew,” it says, adding that the citizens of Kashmir undergo “additional scrutiny” for passports.
“Citizens from Jammu and Kashmir continued to face extended delays, often as long as two years, before the Ministry of External Affairs would issue or renew their passports. ….,” it adds.
The report also finds mention of 10,000 disappearances and around 3,000 mass graves which the administration is reluctant to probe. The report says the authorities asked the Human Rights Commission to close the case of unmarked graves in north Kashmir.
“In December the International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Indian-Administered Kashmir documented 2,943 bodies in graves in Kashmir, 87 percent of which were unmarked,” it adds. About the disappearances, it says, the authorities have reported inconsistent figures on the number of missing persons during the 23 years of armed conflict, with no authoritative data to reconcile the different figures.