Defense Minister A K Antony has initiated a timely inquiry to establish the facts about the killing of Hilal Ahmad Dar in a Bandipora village on Tuesday night. The killing of this Bandipora youth has come in the wake of strong demands for the revocation of the highly controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), widely believed to promote a culture of impunity among armed forces in J&K beyond the reasonable operational requirements. Mr. Antony’s move has served to establish a semblance of confidence among the people in the state, who are deeply upset for such killings happening at regular intervals now. People in the state have also grown extremely cynical to the idea of probes never leading to justifiable prosecution of those who indulge in killings of innocent people. The prima facie evidence of the circumstances involved in the killing of Hilal Ahmad Dar suggests that it was a killing which was clearly avoidable. What also emerges is the fact that the rules of engagement or the standard operating procedures (SOPs) may have been enthusiastically over-stepped; resulting in the killing of a man who the locals vehemently maintain was a civilian. An impartial inquiry must bring out the facts. And, most importantly, lead to prosecution of the guilty even if Hilal’s killing turns out to be a case “mistaken identity” – euphemism for trigger happy executions. Jammu & Kashmir has a long history of a culture of impunity to the armed forces over-stepping their operational brief, something which does not strengthen people’s belief in democratic means in resolving their problems.  Impunity serves to erode people’s trust in a non-violent process of engagement with the state for ensuring their safety and dignity. Worse, such impunity encourages recurrence of such incidents, which shakes people’s faith in the democratic institutions which are supposed to represent them. Justice must prevail for Hilal Ahmad Dar, and also all others who have fallen to such cases over the years.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 27 Jul 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 27 Jul 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 28 Jul 2012 00:00:00 IST