‘469 officials involved in rights violations in J&K’

Two human rights groups on Thursday named as many as 469 officials of security forces and other government agencies for being involved in violations in Jammu and Kashmir. They also alleged that the successive governments and courts have prevented fair investigations and prosecutions of the accused, the fact “corroborated” by government documents. The report is claimed to have been prepared over two years using information gleaned mostly from official state documents in addition to witness testimonies, in cases available with the groups and portrays the “state of impunity” prevalent in Jammu and Kashmir. The specific officials belonging to Army, paramilitary forces and the police, including two Army major generals, three brigadiers, a recently-retired DGP and a serving IG have been accused of perpetuating crimes such as murder, rape and kidnapping and as is claimed in a report released at a press conference here in India has, despite the evidence contained in official documents, not shown “any institutional or political will” to prosecute those responsible. It also dismisses the government’s past claims that “acts of brutality” by security personnel were aberrations. “Volumes of evidence exist of crimes committed by specific perpetrators, assisted by a system where impunity is available right from the commission of the crime to the ultimate cover-up,” the report compiled by the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons and the International People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Indian-administered Kashmir, alleges. It claims that the groups examined 124 killings, 65 disappearances, 59 cases of torture and nine rapes allegedly committed by security forces from 1990 when the insurgency began in Jammu and Kashmir to 2011.