Srinagar, Aug 23: A study carried out by Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation (CDR) has revealed that large chunk of protesters killed during 2010 unrest were students.
“Deaths have been caused to the 117 persons patently in contravention of law and no legislation guarantees immunity to any armed personnel against causing death in civil action,” reveals the CDR study report, ‘Behind the Numbers’.
The report profiling those killed in 2010 unrest and documents the socio-economic condition of the bereaved families.
The report is based on the study of 97 families- whose kith and kin were killed in the summer unrest which lasted for almost five months.
The study reveals the 70 per cent of the persons who died were relatively from poor working class backgrounds. “The students formed the critical portion of this with almost 40 percent of those having died,” the report states.
“Thirty five out of the 97 families profiled survived on less than Rs 5000 rupees a month, 32 earned between Rs 5000 to Rs 10,000. Seventeen have reported monthly income between Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 and only two families have incomes more than Rs 20,000 a month,” the report said.
The report states that out of the 97 families, the 32 said had no hope in the “judicial system and thought initiating any judicial proceedings against the culprits was futile”.
Apart from that, the majority of the families studied were denied access to the FIR by the police.
“Forty six families reported access to FIR while as 51 families’ reported that they have been denied access to the FIR in connection with the deaths of their wards,” the study reveals.
Regarding compensation by the state government whose kiths were killed in police action, CDR report sates that out of 97 families profiled, 68 received the compensation offered to them while as eight refuted it on moral and ideological grounds. Nineteen families were offered no compensation.
The reports states the most common charges invoked against the protesters include destruction of property, indulging mob violence and attempt to murder.
“The ranges of RPC include 148, 149, 336, 307, 188, 322, 304, 147, 146, 392, 421, 239, 345, 302, 353 and 7/25 Arms Act,” the report states.
During the study, it was also found that 76 victim’s families had no political affiliation. Ten persons didn’t respond while as the rest had some kind of affiliation with different organizations.
The report also reveals that Baramulla district witnessed maximum casualties as 39 out of 97 persons profiled belonged to the area. The district was followed by Srinagar where 16 killings were registered while as in Islamabad (Anantnag), 12 and Pulwama 11 were reported.
The report said while the origins of the unrest may be traced to recent events, the lack of political resolution of the Kashmir issue has contributed to the protest.
The report recommended that processes of justices must be revamped. It also stated that citizens should be empowered through access to information rather than disempowering them by controlling and denying information.
The report also recommends that Standard Operating Procedures on civilian crowd control needs to be revisited to make them more transparent.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 23 Aug 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 23 Aug 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 24 Aug 2011 00:00:00 IST