Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society on Wednesday released a report which documents the extra-judicial killings of 1080 persons and enforced disappearances of 172 persons while identifying 972 “perpetrators”, in Srinagar.
The report ‘Structures of Violence: The Indian State in Jammu and Kashmir’ by International Peoples’ Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Indian Administered Kashmir (IPTK) and Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) has also documented numerous cases of torture and sexual violence.
The report was released in the form of a booklet while as a DVD documenting videos of nine case studies of human rights violations produced by ‘Video Volunteers’ under the programme ‘Kashmir Unheard’ was also released and two films screened on the occasion. Kashmir Unheard team will continue to make short films on maximum number of cases released in the report.
Human rights defender and Programme Coordinator of JKCCS, Khurram Parvez while mentioning a quote from the interview with former renegade commander, Liyaqat Khan, said that he (Liyaqat) was not only in touch with the Army but also was backed by the Home Ministry and was asked to persuade National Conference President Farooq Abdullah to contest polls in 1996.”
He further added, “This shows how deeply the Indian state is involved in the perpetuation of crimes in Jammu Kashmir and that the crimes committed are not aberrations but systematic.”
The documented list of 972 perpetrators includes 464 army men, 161 paramilitary forces men, 158 Jammu Kashmir Police personnel and 189 government gunmen.
Gautam Navlakha, Convenor for Peoples Tribunal for Justice in Indian administered Kashmir, while speaking on the occasion said, “We are only presenting the prima facie evidence.”
He further added that, “the last 68 years may not have yielded any results for Kashmiris but that doesn’t mean people should be pessimistic.”
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