Savagery by Indian forces in IHK

The Indian armed forces, especially the Indian Army, is having a field day in held Kashmir. In 17 days of violence, it has killed around 55 Kashmiris, injured more than 1,500 while 600 have suffered through pellet guns. At the same time, scores of Kashmiris have been detained and brutally beaten. All this has been done under Section 7 of the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990 (AFSPA), which grants virtual immunity to members of the security forces from prosecution for human rights violations.

Last year, Amnesty International said this about the largest democracy in a report: “Twenty-five years after the introduction of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in Jammu and Kashmir, the law continues to feed a cycle of impunity for human rights violations….5 July 2015 will mark 25 years since the AFSPA in effect came into force in Jammu and Kashmir. Till now, not a single member of the security forces deployed in the state has been tried for human rights violations in a civilian court. This lack of accountability has in turn facilitated other serious abuses.” According to Mr Minar Pimple, Senior Director of Global Operations at Amnesty International, Mohammad Amin Magray, uncle of 17-year-old Javaid Ahmad Magray, who was killed in April 2003 by security force personnel, told Amnesty International India: “If the Army knew they would be charged, and will have to go to court and be prosecuted, they will think ten times before they pull their triggers on an innocent…The AFSPA is a like a blank cheque from the government of India to kill innocents like my nephew”.

The report stated that many families interviewed said that the AFSPA also provides immunity for security force personnel indirectly. “Police and court records pertaining to nearly 100 cases of human rights violations filed by families of victims between 1990 and 2012 showed that the Jammu and Kashmir police often failed to register complaints or take action on registered complaints until they were compelled,” said Divya Iyer. “In some cases, army personnel have been reluctant or refused to cooperate with police investigations.”

The Indian Army has dismissed more than 96 per cent of all allegations of human rights violations against its personnel in Jammu & Kashmir as “false or baseless”. However, the evidence for finding the majority of allegations false is not publicly available. Few details of the investigations or military trials conducted by the security forces are available to the public, said the report.

Earlier, US diplomats in New Delhi were told in 2005 by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) about the use of electrocution, beatings and sexual humiliation against hundreds of detainees. The US Embassy reported that the ICRC concluded that India "condones torture" and that the torture victims were civilians as militants were routinely killed. The ICRC staff told the US diplomats in 852 cases, the detainees reported ill-treatment. “A total of 171 described being beaten and 681 said they had been subjected to one or more of six forms of torture. These included 498 on which electricity had been used, 381 who had been suspended from the ceiling, 294 who had muscles crushed in their legs by prison personnel sitting on a bar placed across their thighs, 181 whose legs had been stretched by being split 180 degrees, 234 tortured with water and 302 sexual cases.”

Mr Minar Pimple concluded: “By not addressing human rights violations committed by security force personnel in the name of national security, India has not only failed to uphold its international obligations, but has also failed its own Constitution.”

What more vindication is needed that the Indian state, especially the Indian Army, operates outside the norms of international law.