Indian Human Rights Violations in IHK

30 March 1996

23 members of the faction of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front led by Amanullah Khan were killed when police fired mortar shells at their office in Srinagar. Their killers remain free.

18 September 1997

11 people, including women and children, were killed by mortar shelling at Arin Bandipora. The killers remain free.

January 1998

Nine people, including a woman and child, were killed in Kadrana village, Doda district, when army soldiers opened fire on people protesting an earlier arrest. The killers are free.

July 1998

40 people, including women and children were killed in and near Surankote. The killers remain free.

28 June 1999

Fifteen members of two Muslim families, including women and children, were shot dead at Surankote, Poonch district, by unidentified gunmen wearing army uniforms who shot two more women as they fled. The killers remain free.

20 March 2000

36 Sikhs were shot dead in Chittisinghporai, on 25 March 2000, five men were unlawfully killed who were implicated in the earlier killings. On 3 April 2000, seven people demonstrating against the earlier two incidents were shot dead by police. The killers of these 48 people remain free.

1 August 2000

On the night of 1 August 2000at least 105 people were shot dead in several different incidents. The killers remain free.

15 February 2001

six people were shot dead in Haigam during protests at an earlier death in custody when security forces and/or police opened fire on them. The killers remain free.

This list is by no means exhaustive. Many more such incidents have come to Amnesty International’s attention and others must be assumed to go unnoticed and unreported. The unlawful killings described above all involve a large number of victims. Almost daily, unlawful killings of one or two individuals are reported in Jammu and Kashmir as well. Amnesty International recorded 70 deaths in custody and extrajudicial killings in the period January to August 2000 alone. The cease-fire in force since 28 November 2000 has not improved the human rights situation in the state as deaths in custody, extrajudicial executions by state agents and unlawful killings by armed groups continue unabated.

Between the beginning of the cease-fire and mid-February 2001, some 23 extrajudicial executions have been reported in the media, in 15 of which the Special Operations Group has been implicated. Unlawful killings have been carried out by agents of the state, including state police, central police force and miliary or paramilitary forces. Many reports of unlawful killings in Jammu and Kashmir make it impossible for observers to decide who the perpetrators were. For instance, in the case of the killing of 36 Sikhs in Chittisinghpora in March 2000, observers and investigators have provided widely varying interpretations, alleging that government agents carried out or instigated the killings.

Amnesty International calls on the government of India to take seriously its obligations under international human rights law to stop the unlawful killings in occupied Jammu & Kashmir. Impunity is one of the main contributing factors for the continuing patterns of human rights violations the world over. By bringing perpetrators to justice, governments send a clear signal that such violations will not be tolerated and that those found responsible will be held fully accountable. When there is failure to investigate human rights violations and those responsible are not punished, a self-perpetuating cycle of violence is set in motion resulting in continuing violations of human rights.

Following the fifth anniversary of the killing of Jalil Andrabi and the first anniversary of the killings at Chittisinghpora, and indeed the daily deaths and suffering, Amnesty International urgently calls on the government of Jammu and Kashmir to break the cycle of impunity and further human rights violations by undertaking the following measures in accordance with the United Nations (UN) Principles on the Prevention and Investigation of Extra-legal, Summary and Arbitrary Executions:

• Take all appropriate measures to prevent unlawful killings;

• Set up prompt, independent and impartial inquiries into every incident of unlawful killing to ensure that the truth about the killings is revealed without further delay;

• Ensure that these inquiries fully conform to the requirements of the Principles of the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions;

• Ensure that the results of inquiries are promptly made publicly accessible;

• Provide commitments that perpetrators will be held to account and that sanction for prosecution will not be withheld;

• Ensure transparency and openness by permitting international human rights groups like Amnesty International and human rights mechanisms of the United Nations regular access to the state.