The Central government's professed commitment to human rights is worth nothing so long as it won't allow the soldiers indicted for murdering innocent civilians in Kashmir to be prosecuted for their crimes.
I asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh an unfair question during his big press conference last month. How could he speak of zero tolerance for human rights violations in Kashmir when his government would not allow the prosecution of army officers and jawans charge-sheeted by the Central Bureau of Investigation for the murder of five innocent civilians at Pathribal in Kashmir in 2000? The question was unfair because there was no reason to expect India's chief executive to be aware of the status of an individual case, no matter how gruesome. Or to know why one branch of his government had made out a case for murder against a group of soldiers only to have another branch, the Ministry of Defence, do its utmost to ensure that the indicted men never stand trial.
Like many other questions that day, therefore, mine also went unanswered. I wasn't surprised or disappointed because the reason I asked it was to extract a commitment from the Prime Minister. You see, 10 years ago, I visited a woman named Raja Begum in Anantnag. She was the mother of Zahoor Dalal, one of the five men murdered in Pathribal. Throughout the time I spent in her house, she wept quietly in one corner and didn't say a word. All the talking was done by another relative. As I left, I made one last attempt, asking her whether there was anything she wanted to tell the people of the country. “Zahoor can't come back but those who did this should be punished before my eyes,” she replied. “Why did they pick up an innocent man and murder him? If there is a government, if there is justice, the people who did this must be punished.”
I wrote about Pathribal and its aftermath countless times but wanted to make another push for justice in this case. My question to Dr. Singh, then, was really Raja Begum's, the partial discharge of a debt journalists accumulate as they run from story to story. And as expected, the Prime Minister promised to look into the matter. I have no idea what enquiries or exertions he has made on the case since then but the facts themselves are quite simple. And, in the context of the recent exposé of fake encounters in Machhil in Kupwara, they reveal a pattern of impunity that ordinary Kashmiris will be condemned to endure until India gets a Prime Minister brave enough to put a stop to it.
A group of terrorists, most probably from the Lashkar-e-Taiba, arrived at the Chattisinghpora village in Anantnag district in the dead of night on March 20, 2000. They made all the Sikh men assemble and gunned them down in cold blood. Five days later, L.K. Advani, who was Union Home Minister at the time, told a nation still recovering from shock that the heinous crime had been solved with the killing of five “foreign militants.” In an FIR filed on March 25, officers from the Rashtriya Rifles and the Special Operations Group of the State police said they had managed to corner and kill the five terrorists in a fierce encounter at Pathribal-Panchalthan. The bodies of the men, which had been burned beyond recognition, were buried in a common grave.
Unfortunately for the army, the five men killed were not terrorists or foreign nationals. They were civilians who had been picked up in and around Anantnag on March 24. Apart from young Zahoor, the others named were Bashir Ahmad Bhat, Mohammed Malik, Juma Khan and Juma Khan. Such was the randomness of the operation that it had actually netted two men of the same name from different villages. As the families of the five men searched frantically for their missing relatives, suspicions grew that the “terrorists” buried in the common grave may not be whom the authorities claimed them to be. Protests were held demanding exhumation of the bodies. The demand was rejected, leading to an ugly incident in Brakpora on April 3 where the Central Reserve Police Force opened fire on unarmed protesters, killing nine.
The bodies were eventually exhumed and positively identified by the families of the five missing men. But the government baulked at the implications and insisted on DNA matching. Blood samples were collected, which all turned negative. This was because the police and local doctors, acting on whose instructions it is still not known, switched the samples. When the tampering was exposed in March 2002, fresh samples were collected which conclusively established that the five “terrorists” killed in that so-called joint operation by the Rashtriya Rifles and the police on May 25, 2000 were none other than Zahoor and the others who had been abducted by the security forces the night before.
The State government then ordered a CBI investigation into the killings. The agency took four years to come to the conclusion that the five men had indeed been murdered. It filed a charge-sheet in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Srinagar, against Brigadier Ajay Saxena, Lt. Col. Brijendra Pratap Singh, Major Sourabh Sharma, Major Amit Saxena and Subedar I Khan of 7th Rashtriya Rifles, accusing them of murder under Section 302 of the Ranbir Penal Code. That was in July 2006. Four years on, the trial has yet to begin.
With the full backing of the Army brass, the Ministry of Defence and the Government of India, the five soldiers challenged their indictment on the grounds that the government had not granted sanction to prosecute them. The CBI took the view that the requirement of prior sanction mentioned in Section 7 of the Armed Forces (Jammu & Kashmir) Special Powers Act 1990 was only for protection of persons acting in good faith and that abducting and murdering innocent civilians could by no stretch of imagination be considered something “done or purported to be done in exercise of the powers conferred by this Act.” The Principal District and Sessions judge in Srinagar before whom the case was committed offered the Army the option of trying the soldiers in a court martial. But the Army refused, and the matter went to the High Court which ruled in favour of the CBI in July 2007 that prior sanction was not required. At this stage, the Army (represented by the General Officer Commanding, 15th Corps) moved the Supreme Court, which admitted the appeal in September 2007 and stayed further proceedings before the trial court. Since then, the matter has not moved at all. For some reason, notice to the Jammu and Kashmir government, listed as a co-respondent to the CBI in the GOC's petition, was only served in December 2009.
If the Central government was really serious about ensuring justice, it could have done one of two things at any stage after 2006. It could have granted sanction to prosecute the five army men, ending the legal wrangling over the CBI's indictment there and then. Or it could have gone along with the CBI's rational argument that the protections contained in the Armed Forces Act (and indeed in Section 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code) cannot be extended to cover blatant criminal acts like the murder of innocent civilians. But, no, none of this was done, for the promise of “zero tolerance” of human rights violations is just an empty slogan.
If the Prime Minister feels I am being unfair, let him end the sickening litigation that is preventing Raja Begum and countless other mothers and fathers and sons and daughters of people wrongly killed by the security forces from getting justice. But ending impunity is not just about righting the wrongs of the past. It is also about deterring future criminals. If the men responsible for murdering Zahoor Dalal and four others at Panchalthan had been tried, convicted and punished, I am certain the soldiers who kidnapped and murdered three young Kashmiri men in Kupwara on April 29 in order to claim cash rewards for bravely killing three “terrorists” would not have so easily done what they did. A case against the army officers has now been filed but if Pathribal is any guide, that too will not go anywhere.
The Prime Minister is going to Kashmir next week. When he is asked questions about these cases, he will have to do more than simply promise to look into them.
Keywords: Human rights violations, anti-terror operations, UPA government, Lashkar-e-Taiba, militancy, Indian Army, CRPF
In India 97% people do not understand English.Present legal language is for whom ?
What mother's Milk is to baby, Mother tongue is to education.
Most Indians need to read history, and try to know more about Kashmir.
justice & law should be equal for everybody.
If an army personnel commits crime he should be punished under the law. Just that he is in Army doesn't give him any right to take lives of innocent people.
this kind of act will further aggravate the situation in Kashmir which is already feeling left out.the government and the army are loosing the confidence of the people of valley and motivating them to turn to other side.
In rest of the India it is believed that terrorist rule the roost in Kashmir. The reality is that killers who masquerade as armymen are not punished for their wanton killings. It is a vicious circle and when anger erupts among the masses against such atrocities it is touted by the Establishment as LeT sponsored as home minister Chidambaram has done recently.
Vardarajan is right. The prime minister should show some signs of guts and without acting eunuch-like should stem the rot if it has not set in too deep already.
We are humans before we belong to any nationality. And i believe human life and dignity is sacred, and above any identity of caste colour or nationality. Whether we kashmiri are patriots or anti national should not be a factor deciding whether we deserve to live or not. By the way this article and particularly some comments in its favour gives me a ray of hope. And i am sure the kashmiri children killed recently will raise questions. And when questions are asked the murderer cannot hide.
Hats off to the writer. A brave and timely article. I respect the armed forces and I salute them. But they are definitely not above law. If the lone surviving terrorist in 26/11 can be punished within one and half year trial, what the hell the court and the government doing in these cases for 10 years? In my view both are same, in fact innocents being killed for want of awards is much more brutal than terrorism. We, the people of India, consider J&K as inseperable part of ours. Do the government take it that way seriously?? or only for political agenda?
The impression I could gather going through the comments of many is that many of them are trying to give communal colour to the military atrocitiies, whether they are happening in Kahmir,Jarkhand or Arunachal pradesh. What is to be understood is that people getting killed by security forces during the discharge of their duties to quell some mob uprising or other form of unrest cannot be equalled with innocent people being whisked away from their home and fired point blank same day or next day and declaring it as an encounter.The latter by any standard is sheer brutality.When demands for enquiry into such incidents are brushed aside under the pretext that such action will demoralise the security forces then we have no right to condemn the equally brutal terrrorists' activities killing innocent people.
Whatever you are writing is your own perception, in fact you know only the cases where the civilians are killed or what they told you as a journalist. But have you ever written about the our soldiers who are living there in danger so that law and order situation would be maintained, so that our sovereignty of our country is maintained?
In all such cases, the antecedents of the targetted victims are kept secret by the media. An impartial enquiry into that will open the tin of worms.
If such an issue is being raised at a national platform to the prime minister, then where does the journos moral obligation go while supporting the rights of the kashmiri pandits, hindus or sikhs murdered in the valley by Pak sponsored terrorist groups. The securtiy forces have at least given the militants and apt reply to what they intended to achieve thru the massacre of the sikhs. I would rather ask the so called moral journos to be unbiased and look into the atrocities committed on the hindus and sikhs since ages, under extereme violations of human rights, than showing us the terrorist's version of the story.
All the people attacking Varadarajan, I don't understand your gripe. The soldiers he talks about were CHARGESHEETED by the CBI!! You forget that basic fact?? Should CBI not have done that, is that what you guys are saying? All this noise about pandits, hindus, conditions of soldiers, all these stuff is COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT. It is like patient whose wrong leg is amputated goes to doc to complain and doc says, look, why are you complaining, so many of our countrymen are dying of malaria, why you not talking about that. Get some common sense, people.
It is sad and one sided opinion and thus the malignment of the armed forces continues in both electronic and print media.One must understand that the army is fighting a treacherous and difficult battle in JAK . What seems to be ordinary civilians are often over ground sympathisers of terrorists or informers or even couriers of weapon consignments and often their families are not aware or hide such acts.This is a secret war where the enemy is hidden and army has punished people who make such errors in judjement.Often army is guided by local intel which at times is unreliable and can lead to such embarrasmant.It is precisely because of such interference by media and human rights organisation that armed forces are reluctant to participate in ops against naxalites/maoists.Please advocate the use of police forces against maoists and leave the army alone and then u will realise that terrorists and maoists have no respect for law abiding citizens or human rights.
rmy and Police functions, partcularly at the hostile boarder like in J & K where hostility against Armd Forces persists within and across.On top of this,our own political parties demand withdrawl of spcl protection act for the armd forces seems to be rediculous.What interest an army unit has to take innocent civ from home to border and shoot in fake encounters.And if there is any,the Govt and auth should remove those factors.By training,a soldier has to be blood thirsty in an hostile environment or else he will get killed.Alternatively,let the army do its job of protecting the country"sfrontiers and police do internal security.No eye wash by renaming army units as Rastriya Rifles for police duties.It will harm the finest disciplined force we have in the country.
4 suspected terrorists whose minds were brainwashed by Islamic hardliners who could do nothing but blast around the world. What about the Indian army soldiers, do they don't have mothers, wife and sons. What about plight of their family. Remember J&K is the state where poverty level is lowest in India and it's not because Kashmiri are the most hardworking people . It's because GoI devotes lot of money to J&K even at the cost of UP,Bihar & Orissa. Still these people keep nagging . What a shame, Mr. Writer please see the other side too.
Siddharth Varadarajan, This whole kashmir problem is fomented nurtured supported by Pakistan's intolerant Muslims. Why didn't you mention the thousands of hindus massacared by fanatic Islamic terrosists. Hindus became refugees in their own country. where is media coverage about it. All Army personnel at border should resign and look for some other jobs and Paki muslims will take over India like they did since 12th century Mughal invaders. Appreciate the Army sacrifices to protect you and your family. What human rights mughals showed?
You have highlighted the case of infringement of human rights of 34000 widows and 80000 orphans of 70000 people lie buried in graveyards of Kashmir.
Is Ministry of Social Welfare doing something for these victims?
The concept of Democracy is being questioned at such time.
Mr.Vardarajan. Continue your crusade against such injustice. You are the icon of India's free journalism.
Articles like this play right into the hands of militant groups. What triggered the violence was the Chattisighpura episode, of which only a passing mention is made. L-e-T continues to thrive and will probably use Varadarajan's entry for furthering their own cause. Why is it okay to perpetrate religious hatred in schools and poison adolescent minds? The author has completely and conveniently ignored the context of the whole war launched by the militants against human decency and civilization. I wish he had the temerity to also ask of our Pm why he is not launching an all out attack, however expensive, against the Maoists or the JK militants and wipe this plague out so such episodes will never happen again.
Varadrajan's write-up is intereting. The insurgency in J&K has been going on for for almost a decade. The incidences of fake encounters involving the Army had been minimal compared to the terror and mayhem being perpetrated by home-grown subversive and ever-separatist Muslim population of the State. They have hounded out the peaceful non-muslim population (including Sikhs)from their homes and hearths.
Can The Hindu devote some of the print to the miseries of widows and orphans created by the Kashmiri subversives.
Thank you for highlighting the cause of all those mothers who have lost their sons and didnt get justice. Anyone who is done a crime must be punished. Whether its a PM or a security force or a 'real' terrorist. Why do people here support the army even though they have committed a crime? Its not patriotic to blindly support your county, but its irresponsible. Thank you. Jai Hind.
as a journalist you never accept other side opinion because you raised and developed on the same angle. i seen few of your representation in talk show many of the places never agrees to your part of discussion. if fact those are micro assessment and you need to improve your onlooker. You are an indirect supporter of even the maoist group and their current onslaught work but still you support indirectly their act and you have not seen it as human right violation. so you have no grounds talk until and other wise develop yourself or correct yourself
A first hand reasoning to majority of our population who still wonder why Kashmiris still come out publicly against the military & government which has been trying so hard to keep our borders secure and the state free of militants ever since independence.
Excellent article. Potrays just one image of the countless Pathribals and Machils happening in Kashmir every day. Thousands of innocent Kashmiris killed by Indian security forces and no body care a hoot in India for that. Will the Kashmiri muslim get any justice or sympathy as we Pandits got. While the pandit youth were given free medical and engineering college seats, got absorbed in all Multi national companies, got monthly refugee pensions, reservations in state jobs: Kashmiri Muslims were being eliminated by the same Indian Administrative force. They are not aliens but the original inhabitants of Kashmir (did not come from Mars). They deserve as much a right to justice and life as any other communities in India. Why this fascist tendency in Kashmir by Indian polity?
Mr. Siddharth it is too hard to resist the temptation of raking up the boiling issues as it has been aptly done in your article.
But if you would have been as close to the security forces as you went to these localites, may be you would have a change of heart.
Have you ever noticed the numerous of SOCIAL WELFARE projects taken up by security forces, ever visited the SCHOOLS security forces are running or EVER WENT TO A REMOTE VILLAGE ON THE HILL WHERE DRINKING WATER (BASIC NECESSITY) is being provided by security forces without any grude or wrinkle. Inspite the locals being so hostile to them.
J&K has received hundred times more from the security forces than their reciprocation. Though this does not justifices killing of innocent people, but highlighting the forces in such a dark shade is unwarranted.
So a kind advice, just toss the coin and see its both faces may be you could notice a difference.
Mr. siddarath u deserve every kind of praise for mustering the courage in the indian state to highlight the agony of kashmir. There has been a pin-drop silence from the indian media most of times regarding the worst occurring to kashmiris at the hands of so called national guards. kashmir which once was called a Heaven on earth has turned into a blood sea where the human bodies are floating like trash. There has been innumerable cases of fake encounters,extrajudial killings and disappearances which were executed by these national guards.some cases were exposed and some are still cloaked in silence.The massacres are on.people are being slaughtered like lambs but no one cares. The troops are enforcing the reign of terror instead of making the efforts to shorten the widening gap of hatred.The media has to play a role......yes it has to....there is need of pseudos of Mr. sIDDHARTH VARADARAJAN who could raise the voice on behalf of voiceless kashmiris.Mr.siddharth i salute your spirit passsion and courage.
The issue is not that when the men in uniform are killed while defending or when the terriorists are killed in the action. While defending against the aggression , men in uniform do the courages job which a civilain cant do .
Here the writer is bringing in the point of corruption in the security agencies . To get a promotion,a reward , a medal than U have to really earn it and gives one a respect n honour all their lives . When U are faking encounters , killing innocents whether in Kashmir or any other part in India, what does it say. We cannot justify one wrong by citing the two wrongs of the opponents.
For the people who are putting their comments in favour, despite the proven case of fake happenings, they shud come out of thier loyality vis a vis religion n nation. Humanity is supreme and nothing can replace that. Today it not us tomorrow it can be us too.
There have been too many cases of the likes of Ruchika, where men in power played with entire system to be on top.
We have to act now against any kind of oppression on civilians by men in uniform
I can't believe that a mainstream journalist of a main stream newspaper has written an article like this and not branded a traitor.the problem with the Indian polity has been that at the altar of national interest they are making the problem of Kashmir more aggravated and problematic.the same they did in shopian.no state govt has the guts to stand up to these daily barbaric actions of the so called security forces resulting in more resentment of not only the system but the people of India which are represented by the security forces in Kashmir.zero tolerance is a good slogan but alas an empty one and I hope by reading this article better sense prevails in the largest democracy and we have a life in Kashmir without these killings by the said security forces.
I'd seen the PM happily avoiding all the controversial questions in his interview to the press media.. I also this specific question was avoided when raised.. The sad part is the PM didn't even say a cursory 'I'll look into this issue' comment - To all the people who have conveniently commented 'Why doesn't someone question the massacre of the Kashmiri pandits' - well, two wrongs don't make a right.. It is pretty evident to everyone that no one can be above the law and as a nation, we have to show our resolve by unequivocally condemning such atrocities in the strongest possible terms.. If we do not show resolve, we are continuing to encourage Kashmir to be a breeding ground for terrorists..
Mr Raju I am agree with you and also respect your feeling for Kashmiri Pandits. But its totally unethical and against to humanity to killing innocent(either Hindu, Muslim or Sikh).
These army people (I am not pointing whole army) killing innocent people just for getting reward and promotion its totally wrong. Its fundamental duty of justice panel to give them justice (victims family) as soon as possible and punish these army people. Prime minister take it seriously otherwise these type incident may create more terrorist in future. So I am totally agree with SIDDHARTH VARADARAJAN view.
Anybody who defies a mother's loss as a 'stray incident' has no right to talk about Human rights.
trying to open the face of reality... men with gun thinks that they have the right to kill all.... they are doing that...
an eye opener
The write up is worthy of felicitations. The question confronting all is the vulnerability of the innocent citizens who are butchered for no sin of theirs that too by the men in uniform supposed to protect and guard. The forces need proper checks and balances to ensure that all ends well with Right to Life.
The Indian civil society and administration should rise to the occasion and raise their voice against human rights violations in Kashmir.Some friends said about the security forces being killed in kashmir by millitants, I agree they too are human beings. But to every action there is equal and opposite reaction. Take the case of Mitchal fake encounter. It is the same group of state armed people who were responsible for destruction of property of our Kashmiri pandit brothers. Has there been any act of aggression by any Kashmiri in the last twenty years of turmoil in the state against the pandits living here in the valley?
Why is the media silent about Kashmiri pandits who have been forcefully displaced, lost their near/dear, property, wealth, anything and everything they had. They are living scattered all over the world (un)pleasantly recalling the memory of their homes from which they were forcibly vacated two decades back. All said and done present Govt. is weak/infirm and Army should be given more free hand and power to curb terrorism and Naxalism. In the process there would be isolated incidents of civilian casualties which needs to be tolerated in the overall interest of the country's welfare.
It is common knowledge to anybody who have visited Kashmir Valley that common man there does not believe that he is part of India and his aversion to Indian Army is well known. Incidents like this and the culprits going unpunished, and the administration dragging its feet for years will only alienate him more from the mainstream. Hindu-Muslim amity in Kashmir Valley was very strong. It is the Pakistan exported terrorism that has uprooted them from their valley. The oft repeated statement that Jammu and Kashmir is the integral part of India will sound hollow unless and until all steps are taken to integrate the hearts and minds of the people of Kashmir Valley with India.
democracy as everyone knows has four pillars and no justice can be delivered unless all these four have fair before man and god thus siddarth varadarjan may be exception not a rule in 2006 pathribal case was open case where all the agencies public ally admitted that army has killed five persons in fake encounter but central government refused to sanction to prosecute these army men .so now latest case among many cases came to open thats army killed 3 persons and within one month on 30th april and they were identified and police verified by means of family and police records they r innocent and have been killed so it meet patrhribal fate.....
so question now is will Indian Prime Minister publicly aplogise to kashmiri?
I would really like to question the motive behind writing this article in general and other people who support this article in particular.
Ofcourse security forces are not above the law - no one is; but what also needs to be considered is the environment and conditions under which these people work.
I come from a defence background, have a lot of my close friends serving the nation and I can assure you that this is definitely NOT the way OUR defence forces operate (note the stress on OUR). Yes, there are a few rotten apples everywhere but does not serve to generalise the image of our security forces; To say that violating human rights is the modus-operandi of our security forces or to say that security forces violate human rights on a routine basis is nothing short of foolishness.
The fact is, like it does in electronic media, TRP (readership) rules the roost in print media as well - as a result, print media also spares no opportunity to print such establishment-bashing articles as these in an effort to increase readership. In Sum - I smell a "Arundhati Roy" rat here.
A few points worth pondering about :
1. How often are the hardships faced by security personnel posted out on border posts or in the valley reported out in the media ?
2. Has the media ever considered bringing to light the plight faced by widows of security personnel who sacrificed their lives on the battlefield ? Only if the sacrifice was considered brave enough, a medal would be handed out to the widow. Now apart from all the pride etc, what exactly
does that piece of metal mean to the widow ? Does it help her re-build her life - if at all ?
3. Undoubtedly, two wrongs do not make a right, but I support other people who point out the hardships faced by kashmiri Pandits when they were displaced in the early 90's.
The security forces ARE sacrificing the prime of their life to ensure that people like us in general and the author in particular can turn on the AC, get a good nights sleep and wake up refreshed the next day. Come on, give them a break ? Articles like these do nothing more than demoralise the personnel and paint a bad picture of the serving personnel.
I hence oppose the author for writing such a one-sided and myopic article. Sure everyone is entitled to his/her opinion but the opinion that is published in a national daily needs to be at the very least, balanced.
Please take your time to visit some of the family member who died in Mumbai Carnage or to say any other terrorists attacks survivors.They would say the same thing what Kashmiri widow have told. Do you agree there is lethargy in our system and terrorist who caught red handed stay alive even after capitol punishment.
Do you agree you are doing <b>partial job by not covering terrorist attach victims</b> ?
It happens all over the world. Even in the most peaceful nations. Security forces will only act in a manner that is consistent with the area and people they have to deal with. In Kashmir or Jharkhand, Indian security forces are dealing with ruthless terrorist. One moment the soldier is alive, next moment his head can be blown to pieces by a grenade from the unsuspecting crowd! How does one react in a situation like that?
Indian forces are dealing with terrorist in Kashmir who are motivated not by being killed by the security forces, but religious extremism and having friends from Pakistan and Afganistan. These people are not patriots. They are anti-nationals. It is hard to dishern when they hide among civilians and places of worships. These isolated mistakes by security are not premeditated.
When people accept the constitution and pledge not to harm their country and society, things will be solved. Think what you can do for your country....
You idiot Varadrajan...back off from being unrealistic. Ask why 100s of temples have been demolished in Kashmir and pandits have lost their homeland. Pandits are the original people from Kashmir. Not the Muslim invaders, who still look up to Pakistn and Saudi Arabia.
I agree with the author; disagree VEHEMENTLY with people who commented against this article. The topic is, are security forces above law. The author makes the point that, if we call people 'Security forces' and also we have cases such as Shopian or others that accuse security forces of issues, then we should fight it to the fullest. Security forces should be punished severely. There is no place worst on earth if the region is populated by security forces and they try to hurt the population that they are supposed to protect. PM/HM should have given this top most priority, as part of Kashmir policy - no kidding.
Raising hindu displacement etc is a question to be raised when autonomy, plebiscite or other issues come up. We rule that region, we must give 100% statisfaction to its people. I am lucky to have grown up in south and never faced such conditions and cannot sit back relaxed and comment on another region just like it. Lets put ourselves in other people's shoes first.
Just some days ago, Siddhartha criticised Canada's decision to deny visas to some Indian security personnel. He argued forcefully that India's security establishment should not be held collectively guilty of the crimes committed by individuals. The Pathribal case clearly shows how blurry the boundaries between individuals and institutions are. When the nation's defence establishment repeatedly ensures that blatant human-rights abuses go unpunished, the problem is not just about a few bad apples -- it reflects a deep-rooted disregard for the law. It is an irony that we perhaps need to look to other nations such as Canada to deliver the justice that eludes mothers like Raja Begum in their own nation.
Well followed up and very well written. Thanks Siddharth! Please keep asking such 'unfair' and inconvenient questions on behalf of the people. We need a lot more of responsible and 'thinking-feeling' media and civil society.
I agree Mr. Vardarajan's assertion about the petty sloganeering as far as zero tolerance on Human Rights violations are concerned. In any democratic system which tries to take a moral high ground, the justice has to be seen being done. Unfortunately, very often the governements, both centre and the states, seem to be shielding the accused men in uniform in the cases of human rights violations, be it in J&K or Gujarat or Chattisgarh. We can't fix our myriad problems viz. seperatism/terrorism,naxalism and communalism unless our law enforcing agencies are trained to become professional, sensitive and law abiding.
Interesting perspective. Human rights if applicable to all citizens equally, then why is there no mention of zero tolerance for violations of the human rights of the Pandits (the original Kashmiris). Since 1989 they have been languishing in refugee camps, in their own country! There is no sleepless nights for nearly 400,000 of them! No difficult questions from the media about their status quo or about the need to prosecute those who were the perpetrators of the worst ethnic cleansing since the holocaust (many of those accused now are "moderates" and/or "secularists"). Aren't these Pandits worth a similar article or is human rights only applicable for a select exalted few? Aren't all citizens equal under the constitution and deserve the same concern and respect (including the abused soldiers who serve so proudly to give us our sleep, perhaps in the luxury of our air-conditioned bedrooms).
Tributes to you mr. vardarajan.... for exemplifying the constructive catalysis that even a national mainstream medium can bring about in sincere introspection that we as citizens of this country have long found convenient to ignore.
Excellent article once again Mr.Varadarajan. It makes me realize that all is not well in the part of kashmir administered by us. No wonder people still have motivation to join terrorist across the border to wage a war against our country.Unless the Prime Minister acts decisively against these inhuman acts, people will not have any faith in the system and will continue to be supportive of those who think 'jehad' is the way forward. And you cant really blame them either if Indian Govt. shows these kinda of lackadaisical attitude.
Sir, when the security forces are in the arena - not only Kashmir but from Bastar to the North East; and unfortunately most of the times press as well encourages them to go for the kill, what would they do? This would increase in the coming days, whatsoever, you right.
Now I get the inkling to the aspect of terrorism bred due to our Army's atrocities on our own people. Shame!
There is plenty that has gone wrong in Kashmir and it would only be incumbent upon any self-respecting government to answer. The Armed Forces Special Powers Act which has given the security forces much protection has to be either scrapped or at least nuanced so as to not the security forces get away with what has been plain murder in some cases. A large majority of the soldiers and policemen are performing a selfless and thankless task in the valley but a few bad apple are giving the uniform a bad name. These people have to be weeded out and punished if the crime is proved.
I break my heart to read such a sad story of justice delayed and denied. Thank you for bringing it to our notice.
When a Kashmiri terrorist is killed, the Indian media highlights it in most of newspapers and TV channels. But the plight of Indian soldiers, widows and orphaned children of brave Indian soldiers are ignored by media. Our media, courts and so called 'human rights groups' etc start shouting from the house tops when a terrorist is killed. With the result, some of security force officers and personnel are hounded and put behind bars and the rest are demoralised.
Nice article. But seems pretty one-sided and incomplete.
I have interacted with the defence personnel posted in such operational areas. The good things happening due to our security forces are never highlighted but such stray incidents become headlines. By the way, I know enough about disrespect shown by the local people there. Hence it would be inappropriate to call them all patriotic.
Discipline in the force should be enforced and just as in any other part of the coutry, if men in uniform commit a crime , the individuals who commit a crime should pay.
As simple as that.
Whats so special about Kashmir ?
Did it occur to any journalist to ask, if the men who killed thousands of Kashmiri Hindus in Kashmir valley, have been prosecuted ?
Did it occur to anyone to ask, what the government is doing to restore the Hindu Kashmiris back in the valley, who have been so brutally uprooted by Kashmiri separatists ?
Why do I not see any such questions ?
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