The magisterial inquiry ordered by J-K Government  has indicted Central Industrial Security Force in the killing of a twelfth class student Altaf Ahmad Sood in Boniyar, Uri in January. The inquiry has revealed that CISF resorted to unwarranted and disproportionate force to quell a peaceful protest outside the NHPC’s Uri power project. The 500-strong crowd was demanding electricity for their villages in the neighbourhood. Two persons were injured in the incident. CISF had earlier claimed that the protesters tried to gate-crash into the premises of the power project and resorted to arson. The inquiry has made it clear that there are no signs of damage to the property that could have pointed towards a rampaging mob. The killing and its circumstances were symbolic of the Kashmir’s lingering power woes and the contentious politics surrounding it. The incident when it happened played to a simmering public anger in the Valley where NHPC is increasingly being seen as the usurper of the state’s water resources, with even state’s power minister Taj Mohiuddin – a senior Congress leader – being on record to term the Corporation an “East India Company”. However, the point at issue now is not the NHPC’s raw deal to the state but the larger principle of justice. Sood’s killing is not a separate case but forms a part of a series of human rights violations in the state in the past two decades where the guilty continue to evade justice. And this in turn has generated a reigning climate of impunity where security agencies in the state find it easier to kill their way out of tough situations rather than follow the Standard Operating Procedure.  As the magisterial inquiry has underlined, CISF’s response to the protest has been found in serious violation of the SOP. One would hope that the inquiry report leads to punitive action against the CISF personnel who resorted to disproportionate force against peaceful protesters with a legitimate cause. For, only justice in these cases would stop the recurrence of such incidents in future.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 22 Jul 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 22 Jul 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 23 Jul 2012 00:00:00 IST