Sikh Mother awaits son, justice

Sikh Mother awaits son, justice
I want justice. I want to see my son. I want him if he is alive, and if dead

Srinagar, August 23: Family of a youth is awaiting justice for the past 11 years, demanding the whereabouts of their son, they say, was picked up by Special Operations Group of  Jammu and Kashmir Police.

Ichpal’s mother, Agya Kour, said her son left home on March 20, 1999 to get sugar from market, but never returned. “All I remember is that the incident took place one year after the Chittisingpora massacre,” she said, adding, “My son was on way to the market when the SOG picked him up. Since then, I have been moving from pillar to post for justice. I want my son.”

The family resides at Sanat Nagar on the city outskirts after migrating from Arina village in central Kashmir’s Budgam district. Ichpal, son of Karan Singh, was 13-year-old at the time of his arrest. “An SOG man would demand money from us after we sold a cow. But we refused,” she said.

In 2000, Kour said she filed a report about the case in police station, Saddar, and later moved the State Human Rights Commission in 2001 when police did nothing.  In its judgment in 2003, the Commission recommended to the government that an amount of Rs 1 lakh be paid to Kour as ex-gratia relief and sent the order to chief secretary for implementation. “The Government shall inform the Commission about its action within one month,” the SHRC said.

The 2-page report mentioned that the boy’s antecedents were “not shady” and the “police has not stated that he was involved in any anti-national or any illegal action.” Even the senior superintendent of police, Srinagar, in his report said that the youth was not involved in any militancy-related activity.

“The then government didn’t respect the SHRC verdict. For three years, I was not given the ex-gratia even as I am very poor lady, working as peon and having an  ailing husband,” Kour said.

The ex-gratia was sanctioned to Kour on 10 July, 2006, by the then deputy commissioner, Budgam. But, Kour said, the amount could not compensate her son’s loss. “I want justice. I want to see my son. I want him if he is alive, and if dead, I want the killers behind bars,” she told me .

सिख माँ बेटे को, न्याय इंतजार कर रहा है
मैं न्याय चाहते हैं. मैं अपने बेटे को देखना चाहते हैं. मैं उसे चाहता हूँ अगर वह जीवित है, और मृत अगर

By: Sheikh Gulzaar
श्रीनगर, 23 अगस्त: एक युवा परिवार पिछले 11 वर्षों के लिए न्याय का इंतजार है, उनके बेटे के ठिकाने की मांग की, वे कहते हैं, था जम्मू और कश्मीर पुलिस के विशेष अभियान दल द्वारा उठाया.

Ichpal है माँ, आज्ञा Kour ने कहा उसका बेटा 20 मार्च, 1999 पर घर छोड़ दिया करने के लिए बाजार से चीनी मिल, लेकिन कभी नहीं लौटे. उन्होंने कहा सब मुझे याद है कि घटना जगह ले ली एक वर्ष Chittisingpora नरसंहार के बाद ", जोड़ने," मेरे बेटे को बाजार के लिए अपने रास्ते पर था जब एसओजी उसे उठाया. तब से, मैं खम्भे से चलती है न्याय के लिए पोस्ट. मैं अपने बेटे को चाहते हैं. "

परिवार शहर के बाहरी इलाके में सनत नगर में मध्य कश्मीर के बड़गाम जिले में Arina गांव से पलायन के बाद रहता है. Ichpal, करन सिंह का बेटा है, उसकी गिरफ्तारी के समय 13 साल का था. "एक आदमी हमें एसओजी से पैसे की मांग के बाद हम एक गाय बेचा जाएगा. लेकिन हम इनकार कर दिया, "उसने कहा.

2000 में, Kour कहा कि वह पुलिस स्टेशन, Saddar में मामले के बारे में एक रिपोर्ट दायर की है, और बाद में 2001 में राज्य मानवाधिकार आयोग ले जाया गया, जब पुलिस ने कुछ नहीं किया. 2003 में अपने फैसले में आयोग ने 1 लाख रुपये की राशि अनुग्रह राशि राहत के रूप में Kour के लिए भुगतान किया जा सकता है कि सरकार को सिफारिश की है और मुख्य सचिव को लागू करने के लिए आदेश भेजा है. , SHRC ने कहा कि सरकार एक महीने के भीतर अपनी कार्रवाई के बारे में आयोग को सूचित करेगा ".

2-पन्ने की रिपोर्ट में उल्लेख किया है कि लड़के के पूर्ववृत्त "थे नहीं छायादार" और "पुलिस को नहीं कहा है कि वह किसी भी राष्ट्र विरोधी या किसी भी अवैध कार्य". यहां तक कि पुलिस ने अपनी रिपोर्ट में श्रीनगर के वरिष्ठ अधीक्षक में शामिल किया गया कहा कि किसी भी युवा आतंकवाद से संबंधित गतिविधियों में शामिल नहीं था.

"तत्कालीन सरकार SHRC फैसले का सम्मान नहीं किया. , Kour ने कहा कि तीन वर्षों के लिए, मैं अनुग्रह राशि के रूप में भी मैं बहुत गरीब औरत हूँ नहीं दिया था, चपरासी के रूप में काम और एक बीमार पति होने ".

अनुग्रह जुलाई 10, 2006 पर, तो उपायुक्त, बड़गाम द्वारा Kour को मंजूर किया गया था. लेकिन, Kour कहा, राशि अपने बेटे नुकसान भरपाई नहीं कर सके. "मैं न्याय चाहते हैं. मैं अपने बेटे को देखना चाहते हैं. मैं उसे चाहता हूँ अगर वह जीवित है, और मृत अगर, मैं चाहता हूँ सलाखों के पीछे हत्यारों, "उसने मुझे बताया.

Latest updates from Kashmir

Srinagar, July 14 (Writer-South Asia):  In Jammu and Kashmir, an Indian army Major was killed and seven others including a Colonel were injured in a clash in Poonch district.

The clash took place at Beri Rakh in Mendhar area of the district. Major Amit Thingay was killed on the spot while seven troops including Colonel Ajay Katoch, Commanding Officer (CO) of 37 Rashtriya Rifles, Lance Naik Dinesh Kumar, Signalman Satinder Kumar, Naik Jasbir Singh, Sepoy Sunil Kumar and Rifleman Basharat Hussain were critically injured in the clash.

All injured Army personnel have been hospitalised. Indian army official sources have claimed that the two Armed Kashmiri Mujahideen were believed to be killed in the clash. The gun battle was going on till last reports came in.

An Army man, Naik Sudhir Radha was injured in a mine blast when he was shifting from Sagar Post to Hans Post in Balakote area of Mendhar sector along with a Road Opening Party (ROP) of 5 Maratha Regiment of Indian Army.

Meanwhile,condemning the media curbs in disputed Kashmir, media personalities of India have said that attempts are being made to paint journalists from Jammu and Kashmir as anti-India.

Indian journalists at a meeting convened by Press Club of India (PCI) to discuss vindictive policy against media men in the valley, described it a dangerous move and an assault on the press.

The Srinagar correspondents of News X Channel, Suhail Bukhari and Idris Lone, against whom FIRs have been lodged in the Pulwama police station under Unlawful Activities Act, gave their version at the meeting. They said that they had been harassed without any reason by the authorities. They said that they were being victimised by vindictive approach of the occupation authorities though they tried to discharge their duties honestly.

In South Kashmir, Indian Forces con
Scores of Delhi-based Kashmiri journalists also attended the meeting. A resolution was also moved in which the puppet administration was asked to immediately withdraw cases against News X correspondents.

“It said the ban on freedom of expression shows intolerance of the authorities. Attempts are being made to divide the local and international press. This should be resisted and all efforts should be made to mobilise full support for Kashmiri media,” the resolution read.

Seema Mustafa, Sidharat Vardharajan, Nidhi Razdhan, Zafar Agha, Onkar Singh, David Davidas, Shabnam Hashmi and scores of others attended the meeting to express solidarity with Kashmiri media associations. 

2700 unmarked graves discovered in Indian Held Kashmir

Srinagar, 30 June: A human rights group in Kashmir urged authorities to launch a probe into 2,700 unmarked graves believed to be people who died as a result of the region's revolt against Indian rule. Srinagar, India.

In disputed  Kashmir, 2,700 unmarked graves containing over 2,943 bodies across 55 villages in three districts, Bandipore, Baramulla and Kupwara have been discovered.

The Srinagar based human rights group, International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice for Kashmir (IPTJ) in its report released today in a press conference claimed that the graves could be of those missing from the custody of Indian troops. Rights groups put their numbers at ten thousand. The report is based on research between November 2006 and November 2009 and has been authored by prominent human rights activists of India and occupied Kashmir, Angana P. Chatterji, Parvez Imroz, Gautam Navlakha, Zahir-Ud-Din, Mihir Desai, and Khurram Parvez.

112-page dossier, titled ‘Buried Evidence’ was released at a press conference in Srinagar today by Angna Chatterjee, the convener of the group. The report documents in considerable detail how the actions of Indian military and paramilitary forces in Kashmir inflict terror on the local population, killed through extra-judicial means.

The detailed press note issued in Srinagar at the press conference is as follows:

BURIED EVIDENCE is authored by Angana P. Chatterji, Parvez Imroz, Gautam Navlakha, Zahir-Ud-Din, Mihir Desai, and Khurram Parvez.

[Dr. Angana P. Chatterji is Convener IPTK and Professor, Anthropology, California Institute of Integral Studies.

Avocate Parvez Imroz is Convener IPTK and Founder, Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society.

Gautam Navlakha is Convener IPTK and Editorial Consultant, Economic and Political Weekly.

Zahir-Ud-Din is Convener IPTK and Vice-President, Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society.

Advocate Mihir Desai is Legal Counsel IPTK and Lawyer, Mumbai High Court and Supreme Court of India.

Khurram Parvez is Liaison IPTK and Programme Coordinator, Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society.]

Findings

The graveyards investigated by IPTK entomb bodies of those murdered in encounter and fake encounter killings between 1990-2009. These graves include bodies of extrajudicial, summary, and arbitrary executions, as well as massacres committed by the Indian military and paramilitary forces.

Of these graves, 2,373 (87.9 percent) were unnamed. Of these graves, 154 contained two bodies each and 23 contained more than two cadavers. Within these 23 graves, the number of bodies ranged from 3 to 17.

A mass grave may be identified as containing more than one, and usually unidentified, human cadaver. Scholars refer to mass graves as resulting from crimes against humanity, war crimes, or genocide. If the intent of a mass grave is to execute death with impunity, with intent to kill more than one, and to forge an unremitting representation of death, then, to that extent, the graves in Bandipora, Baramulla, and Kupwara are part of a collective burial by India’s military and paramilitary, creating a landscape of “mass burial.”

Post-death, the bodies of the victims were routinely handled by military and paramilitary personnel, including the local police. The bodies were then brought to the “secret graveyards” primarily by personnel of the Jammu and Kashmir Police. The graves were constructed by local gravediggers and caretakers, buried individually when possible, and specifically not en mass, in keeping with Islamic religious sensibilities.

The graves, with few exceptions, hold bodies of men. Violence against civilian men has expanded spaces for enacting violence against women. Women have been forced to disproportionately assume the task of caregiving to disintegrated families and undertake the work of seeking justice following disappearances and deaths. These graveyards have been placed next to fields, schools, and homes, largely on community land, and their affect on the local community is daunting.

The Indian Armed Forces and the Jammu and Kashmir Police routinely claim the dead buried in unknown and unmarked graves to be “foreign militants/terrorists.” They claim that the dead were unidentified foreign or Kashmiri militants killed while infiltrating across the border areas into Kashmir or travelling from Kashmir into Pakistan to seek arms training. Official state discourse conflates cross-border militancy with present nonviolent struggles by local Kashmiri groups for political and territorial self-determination, portraying local resistance as “terrorist” activity.

Exhumation and identification have not occurred in sizeable cases. Where they have been undertaken, in various instances, “encounter” killings across Kashmir have, in fact, been authenticated as “fake encounter” killings. In instances where, post-burial, bodies have been identified, two methods have been used prevalently. These are 1. Exhumation; and 2. Identification through the use of photographs.

The report also examines 50 alleged “encounter” killings by Indian security forces in numerous districts in Kashmir. Of these persons, 39 were of Muslim descent; 4 were of Hindu descent; 7 were not determined. Of these cases, 49 were labelled militants/foreign insurgents by security forces and one body that was drowned. Of these, following investigations, 47 were found killed in fake encounters and one was identifiable as a local militant.

IPTK has been able to study only partial areas within 3 of 10 districts in Kashmir, and our findings and very preliminary evidence point to the severity of existing conditions. If independent investigations were to be undertaken in all 10 districts, it is reasonable to assume that the 8,000+ enforced disappearances since 1989 would correlate with the number of bodies in unknown, unmarked, and mass graves.

Allegations

The methodical and planned use of killing and violence in Indian-administered Kashmir constitutes crimes against humanity in the context of an ongoing conflict. The Indian state’s governance of Indian-administered Kashmir requires the use of discipline and death as techniques of social control. Discipline is affected through military presence, surveillance, punishment, and fear. Death is disbursed through “extrajudicial” means and those authorized by law. These techniques of rule are used to kill, and create fear of not just death but of murder.

Mass and intensified extrajudicial killings have been part of a sustained and widespread offensive by the military and paramilitary institutions of the Indian state against civilians of Jammu and Kashmir. IPTK asks that the evidence put forward in this report be examined, verified, and reframed as relevant by credible, independent, and international bodies, and that international institutions ask that the Government of India comply with such investigations.

We note that the international community and institutions have not examined the supposition of crimes against humanity in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. We note that the United Nations and its member states have remained ineffective in containing and halting the adverse consequences of the Indians state’s militarization in Kashmir.

We ask that evidence from unknown, unmarked, and mass graves in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir be used to seek justice, through the sentencing of criminals and other judicial and social processes. As well, the existence of these graves, and how they came to be, may be understood as indicative of the effects and issue of militarization, and the issues pertaining to militarization itself must be addressed seriously and expeditiously.

The violences of militarization in Indian-administered Kashmir, between 1989-2009, have resulted in 70,000+ deaths, including through extrajudicial or “fake encounter” executions, custodial brutality, and other means. In the enduring conflict, 6, 67,000 military and paramilitary personnel continue to act with impunity to regulate movement, law, and order across Kashmir. The Indian state itself, through its legal, political, and military actions, has demonstrated the existence of a state of continuing conflict within Indian-