Three special rapporteurs of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) have written to India and sought details on steps taken to punish or provide justice to victims and their next of kin in 76 cases of “torture and arbitrary killing” in J&K since 1990, a media report said today.
According to The Wire, the letter to the Indian government,dated March 18, is written by the Special Rapporteur on “extrajudicial,summary or arbitrary executions”, Agnes Callamard, Special Rapporteur onthe right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard ofphysical and mental health, Dainius Puras and the Special Rapporteur on tortureand other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Nils Melzer.
The report said the letter was made public on the UNHRCwebsite on May 18 after a scheduled interval of 60 days, along with India’sreply that refused to provide any clarifications.
The letter relates to 76 cases of “torture and killingsof civilians”, which include 13 just in 2018. These 2018 cases includedeight civilian killings allegedly by security forces, and the rest bymilitants, it said.
“In all these cases, the authorities have reportedly failedto conduct thorough, prompt and impartial investigations, so as to ensure thatthe rule of law prevails, and justice is done and steps are taken to ensure thenon-recurrence of the violations,” wrote the three officials, according to TheWire.
Reminding that the Human Rights Council had given them themandate to seek clarifications from members, the letter asks the Indiangovernment to provide details on eight issues, ranging from the outcome of theinvestigation into the cases to the steps taken to repeal the Armed Forces(Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act.
The letter also had a line stating that it took “note” ofthe report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for HumanRights on the human rights situation in Kashmir, released in June 2018. Indiahad rejected the report and implicitly accused the then UNHRC chief Zeid Ra’adAl Hussein of having acted on his “individual prejudices”.
A month later, India’s response to the letter of the threespecial rapporteurs focussed on the sentence referring to the UNHRC report.
“India rejects any reference whether implicit or explicit orany quote by any human rights mechanisms or bodies from the remote reportpublished by the OHCHR on the situation of human rights in Kashmir in June2018, India rejects the remote report and doubts on its credibility andobjectivity. The Report begets the question whether individual prejudicesshould be allowed to undermine the dignity and standing of the high of?ce,”said the reply from the Permanent Mission of India to UN offices in Geneva.
Terming the report was “false and motivated”, India saidthat it was now a “closed chapter”.
Asserting that “terrorism” is the “grossestviolation”, India stated that basic human right of “right to life is beingconstantly violated by “cross border terrorism” in the Indian stateof Jammu and Kashmir”. It said the “heinous” attack on a convoy in Pulwama inFebruary 2019 has only served to underline the criticality of addressing theissue of cross-border terrorism.
The special rapporteurs have also mentioned the Pulwamaattack in the initial paragraphs of the letter. “We would like at the outsetstrongly condemn the suicide bomb attack against Indian security forces in thePulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir on February 14, 2019, which reportedlykilled over 40 members of the Central Reserve Police Force,” they said,according to the report.
Indicating that it will not respond to the detailedquestions from the special rapporteurs, the Indian reply harped on the mentionof the Kashmir report as the reason to stop further engagement.
“India takes serious objection to using the already rejectedreport by the mandate holders that issued the communication AL IND 8/2019 dated18 March 2019 to raise allegations against India. India, therefore, does notintend to engage further with these mandate holders or any other mandateholders on this issue,” said the letter dated April 23.
According to the special rapporteurs, the allegations werecontrary to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights andInternational Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ratified byIndia in April 1979.
They said that the eight cases related to security forces in2018 “appear to be deliberate killings or excessive and careless use offirearms in the context of either demonstrations or social events”. There werealso three cases last year of individuals being killed by militants, includingone case of torture, as per the letter.
The special rapporteurs said that there was an anomaly inthe filing of police complaints through first information reports in thesecases. “It is not clear whether FIRs have been filed or whether magisterialinquiries have been undertaken, both of which the Supreme Court has ruled aremandatory for deaths involving the security forces,” they said.