Pathribal, Machil, Kunan Poshpora and AFSPA: Repeated Burial of Justice in the Mass Graves of Kashmir
AISA strongly condemns the shameful cover-up of the murder of innocent civilians in Pathribal in what was dubbed as a “joint operation” of the Kashmir police and the Indian Army. This is a shocking display of arrogance resulting from legal impunity accorded to the Indian Army under the draconian Armed Forces Special PowersAct (AFSA). Five innocent Kashmiris were picked up by the Indian Army and passed off as foreign terrorists responsible for the tragic Chhittisinghpora massacre in which scores of Kashmiri Sikhs were lined up and killed. While the CBI established through a probe that the bodies were those of locals and not of foreign terrorists, as claimed by the Army, and that the so-called encounter was actually pre-meditated, cold- bloodedmurder, the Supreme Court held that the culprits could not be tried in a civilian court because of immunity under AFSPA. Although the AFSPA provides for a normal trial with prior permission from the government, this permission is never granted.
The Supreme Court had asked the army to either conduct a court-martial or allow trial in a normal court. The army, of course, chose the easy way out and conducted a hoax investigation in an army court. The victims’ illiterate family members were asked to depose before an army court, hundreds of kilometres away from Kashmir, in Jammu’s Nagrota cantonment. What transpired in the name of trial was a travesty of justice. The DNA tests were initially forged, with samples from unknown persons used. However, when the actual DNA samples of relatives of the victims were used, they matched, thus proving that the bodies were those of local residents and not of foreign terrorists.
Friday, the 24th Jan 2014, will go down in history as yet another shameful day for democracy and human rights. In a shameful “verdict” the army concluded, after a hoax trial, that there was no prima facie evidence against the army men. This is despite the fact the CBI investigation had established the roles of Brigadier Ajay Saxena, Major Bijendra Pratap Singh, Major Sourabh Sharma, Major Amit Saxena and Subedar Idrees Khan in the mass-murder conspiracy. This is a travesty of justice, not only because five innocent Kashmiris were killed, but also because the “unidentified gunmen” who killed 35 Kashmiri Sikhs in Chhittisinghpora may be roaming free even today, possibly in uniform, with impunity. Why, after all, did Army need to plan out such an elaborate murder conspiracy days after the massacre of Kashmiri Sikhs took place?
This is not an isolated incident. Recently, the army “ordered court-martial against six of its men involved in the Machil fake encounter of 2010 in which three innocent Kashmiris were murdered. This is the encounter which triggered the 2010 protests in Kashmir. During the protests, a minor named Tufail Ahmad Mattoo, was ruthlessly beaten up by the police and killed on the street while he was returning from tuition. Tufail was not even involved in the protest. His murder sparked months of protests in Kashmir in which 120 young people were killed and thousands maimed or injured. For all this, the army men get a “court martial”!
It is important to note that these are cases in which murder had been established through a probe. The infamous Kunan Poshpora mass-rape case is listed for final hearings in a district court in Kashmir on the 1st of February, 2014. However, Kashmiri people have lost all hope in such probes. The shameful conduct of the army in Kashmir weakens the very foundations of democracy rather than strengthening national integrity. Kashmiri people are being held captive by the use of these draconian laws which allow the armed forces to get away with rape, murder and enforced disappearances.
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