Newly married woman raped
“A telegram has been laid on the floor of the other House by one of the Hon’ble Members. But no answer has been given. I would like to know from the Home Minister as to whether this is a fact. If this is fact, then that shows what the C.R.P.F. and the B.S.F. are doing in the valley.
Prof Saifuddin Soz: (National Conference):” The figures supplied by the Governor are wrong. There was a massacre at Gaw Kadal on January 21 where 60 persons died.
“On the 26th of January there was a situation worse than the intifada, A small child made a show of Kangri, a fire pot, and six security forces opened fire. They were going in a jeep and the six children standing before a shop were killed.
“Sir, I regard this situation worse than an intifada. In Israel a stone can get a person bullet. It can be a bullet for a stone but we cannot forget that day in the history of Kashmir.
40 killed to save a building
“Then in the first week of February at Handwara, people in their misery, agony, and anger wanted to burn a panchayat ghar (community center) which they should not have burnt. Butin order to save a panchayat ghar 40 persons were killed The first March is remembered as the day when paramilitary forces killed 60 persons.
Mufti Mohammad Sayeed: I think Mr. Soz is giving wrong figures.
Prof, Saifuddin Soz: I am giving you correct figures and I have come prepared to prove them so.
Mufti Mohammad Sayeed: Sir, all the figures are concocted.
Prof. Saifuddin Soz: I am ready to prove all the figures.
Deputy Speaker: Let us be very careful.
Kashmir M.P. challenges Minister
Prof. Saifuddin Soz: “If the Home Minister has some patience, I will prove that the figures are correct. They are not the figures that are cooked (as the State Government does and passes to the Home Minister). I will tell you, what I have already explained to the press.
“In March, J had put the figure of the killed at 450. Governor Jagmohan contradicted that. He wanted me to give the list. I just retorted by saying that he should accompany me to the public. We will go to the people who lost their young sons and daughters. We will visit houses. We will go to the hospitals to count the wounded. He never visited any hospital. How can he tell the number of the dead and injured?
Killings through curfew
“I was discussing about the curfew imposed on April 6. The curfew continued for 15 days. I raised the matter here also. Because of that some respite came. Otherwise, it was a 17day curfew. I raised here a question. Can you impose, in any part of India, such curfew for 24 hours? You have yet to conduct a survey of such curfew having been imposed for a period longer than 24 hours to beat that record. How many people have died, for want of food or medicines? How many women died, for they could not deliver children in hospitals? They could not be taken to the hospitals. So, what is this government doing on that score? These people have been enjoying the situation. That curfew became a world record,
“Yet, there will be a day although neither the Home Minister nor the Prime Minister have come forward to suggest anything where you will have to respond to that situation. When an enquiry commission is instituted, this question is bound to be raised. How could you impose a 24hour curfew on a lakh of people and keep them as hostages without food, without medicines and without any facilities? Even on the old and on the infirm! That will remain a shame.
The innocent women killed
“On May 4, there was a cross firing in Nava Kadam, And after the militants had fired and they had gone to their hideouts, the paramilitary forces opened fire on the innocent people on the roadside, killing four of them. Then they went on a house to house search and they entered a house and killed two women. They fired upon two women: Zala Banu, a law graduate, an HMT employee, fell dead. Her mother received injuries on the chest, she is fighting for her life in the Soura Medical institute even now. There was cross firing in my Suba and Magar Marbah. Again, the same thing happened. Innocent people were killed.
“After this cross firing and the resultant attitude of the paramilitary forces in opening fire on civil population, the Television and the Radio, particularly Doordarshan, Delhi, as well as the Governor’s mouthpiece in Jammu and Kashmir, added insult to injury. They said four people were killed in “cross firing”. There was no death in cross firing. Eight people died and twelve wounded. There was seven day bandh in Srinagar. And this is the list (gives the list) I released at a Press conference. Any you’re Radio and the Governor said four people died in “cross firing”. You should take care about the figures you are quoting in Parliament.
Youth bleeds to death in custody
“Then on May 10 they fired at Latif Ahmed Khan. He may be a terrorist or may not be. But I am telling you he was bleeding, He received a bullet injury on his arm and on his leg. He was taken to Tara Niwas and not to the hospital. He bled to death. Should it be done under our Constitution, and under our “democratic polity”? Even prisoners of war are given some relief.
“But Latif bled to death; and when FIR was lodged in the police station C.R.P.F. appeared and said. “Write our F.LR also, and say there was cross firing”. This is what is happening in Srinagar.
“Maulana Faroog died on May 21. I raised a question as to why he was not protected when there were different opinions about him. Some people rated him as a liberal.
The curfew on the mourners
“I raised a question, as the Prime Minister asked about it that day, whose responsibility is this? The police appeared on the scene after two hours. When a procession of innocent mourners was being taken out, coffins on their shoulders, the Governor tried to impose the curfew. How could he impose curfew restrictions on a procession of mourners? There were lakhs of people. Then they opened fire. There was no cross firing. The Home Minister said the other day that only 27 persons died. This is absolutely a wrong figure. Nearly 100 persons died. If you visit the hospitals, you will come to know about them. Does the Home Minister know about it?
“Somebody told me that more than 300 people were injured in the firing on May 21. Three doctors broke down because so many legs had to be ampulated. This was what I was told by a doctor on telephone. This is the situation”!
“Let there be an enquiry”
Makhan Lal Fotedar (Congress-I) ; “I join Prof. Soz in demanding an enquiry into the killings of innocent Kashmiris in the mourning procession by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court. It is reprehensible that the Government has attacked and killed moumers. In addition to that I would like to suggest a joint Parliamentary Committee should visit Kashmir within two days and report to both houses of Parliament within three days to report on what is happening in Kashmir”.
Subramaniam Swami (Janata Party):
“The Minister says that terrorists with AK47 rifles started firing and in self defence our security forces fired. According to them, 27 persons died, but according to unofficial reports, as many as 100 persons died. None of the security personnel died. Not that I want our security forces to die. But I cannot believe that if the terrorists ‘were among the crowd and were indiscriminately firing with AK47 rifles, our security forces would not have received injuries. Therefore, I consider it as a concocted version of what really happened and it is totally unbelievable even on the basis of the facts presented by the Minister.
“No assurance of human rights”
“Mr. Vice chairman, Sir, when you allow security forces unbridled freedom these things get out of hand.
Yesterday my friend, Mr. Salaria, produced for me and he subsequently gave to the Press Police wireless report about what the B.S.F. did to a marriage party. Such reports are coming in abundance in Kashmir. | know that happens when the Police is given this kind of freedom. In Hashimpura (Meerut) on May 22, 1978, 41 youths were taken arbitrarily to a canal, 20 Kilometers away, shot one by one and thrown into the canal that is an act of genocide.
“319 women die of labour pains”
“Today in Kashmir we have no assurance that the human rights of the people are being protected, Finally, Mr, Vice Chairman, I would like to demand the appointment of a Civil Rights Commission for Kashmir, to receive petitions from the people from whatever sections they may be, about the excesses being committed and a proper hearing on that, I would like to support the proposal made by Fotedar for a Parliamentary Committee to visit Kashmir and find out the situation for itself.
“Will the Hon’ble Minister bear me out that 319 women died of labour pain due to the reason that they could not get any medical aid because of the long spells of curfew? Till yesterday, 302 persons were declared to have been seriously injured. I would like to ask some more questions. I would like to know whether any F.LR. Has been lodged in regard to the 100odd persons who have been killed, or, whatever is the number of persons killed, as a result of the firing by the security forces? If so, who are the persons named as accused?
“U.N. group indicts security forces”
“I would also like to know whether the Hon’ble Minister is aware of the Report of the UN group that during the searches, which are done in a savage manner, valuables of the people are stolen and whatever they have in their homes as a provision for use during curfew periods is rendered unfit for use by urinating on them. The search parties say, “You should not be able to eat anything.” This is the report of the UN group.
There is also ‘another report of the UN group that young men are taken to the ceasefire line, killed and then they are declared to have been killed in encounters. Added to this, as has been said by Mr. Ahluwalia, is the statement of the Secretary General of the United Nations”.
The psyche of Jagmohan
N.K.P. Slave “Madam, what is the basis of my anguish? And what is the basis of the charge that I am leveling against this Government?…(Interruptions)…It is not as a result of anything else, but it is a result of what I have read in newspapers about something which has been stated by the Governor himself…(Interruptions).. Who speaks, Madam, only what the Government wants him to speak; nothing more, nothing less. And I quote with great anguish this is in quotes something which has appeared in the Current, a Delhi weekly, (May 26June 1, 1990: see Annexure I)
“Bvery Muslim in Kashmir is a militant today (Interruptions)
P.Shiv Shanker: this is what the Governor is saying (Interruptions)
N.KP. SALVE: “Again, he says:
“All of them are for secession from India”. (Interruptions)
“Bullet is the only solution for Kashmir”. (Interruptions)
“Unless the militants are fully wiped out, normalcy cannot return to the Valley”.
“I am ashamed of being Indian”
“Madam, he proceeds further, and I am reading out only selected paras. It is an interview, it is quoted verbatim. What I have said is in quotes and this is not the view of the one who interviewed him. (Interruptions)
- Shiv Shanker: By whom?
N.K.P. SALVE: “Interview of Mr Jagmohan by one Sumitra Bose, reported in the Current, and these words which I am reading out are in quotes and these are not the words or description or the evaluation by the interviewer of Mr. Jagmohan’s views. It is entirely in quotes.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 14, 1990
