British Govt.’s historic
Responsibility
“The human rights position in the Punjab And the dangerous position in Kashmir, which seems to be deteriorating fast, call for the British Government to make representations to the Government of India, British has a great historic responsibility for India’s pas, and it has a great responsibility now to speak up on behalf of people who have many relatives and friends there. The Kashmiri community is desperately Worried about their families and their friends, and
are concerned about the future of their country. Sikhs, too, have great worries. I hope that the Minister will echo their concerns, and will make it clear that the British Government, in the spirit of true friendship, is prepared to make the resonations to the Indian Government.”
The PHRO, since then, could not know what specific steps were taken by the British Government to safeguard human rights of the Sikhs and Kashmiris in India.
The CRPF kill 46 Kashmiris
But there is no doubt about the fast deteriorating situation in Punjab and Kashmir. In a shocking incident, the CRPF mowed down 46 unarmed Kashmiris and injured 57 others in Chhota Bazar area of Srinagar on June 11, Prof. Saiffuddin Soz, a former MP from Kashmir, in a letter to the Prime Minister said that the Chhota Bazar incident involved a 12member group of the CRPF in plain clothes who by their mindless firing made passersby and shopkeepers their victims.
The CRPFs indiscriminating firing, the Kashmir leader said, was protected by the provisions of the Disturbed Areas Act and the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act. As long as these black laws remained in operation, the atrocities on the people of Kashmir will continue, he said, He pleaded for withdrawal of the CRPF from Kashmir to arrest the deteriorating situation in the State. The Government of India took no action against the CCRPF unit for going berserk. Instead, its action was defended in so many ways by Delhi and its spokesman. First, the number of those killed was sought to be minimized by an official spokesman whose versions issued in Srinagar alone find a place in the captive media. The Government of India Controlled PTI and UNI gave the number of deaths as 32 killed and “many injured”. Secondly, the reason for the deaths was given as “crass fie between the security forces and the Kashmir militants after the CCRDF unit was allegedly “ambushed”. The further said that “several militants” were killed, There was no mention of the Civilians and unarmed persons who alone were killed, according to later reports emanating from unofficial sources.
A Government of India spokesman at Delhi on June 12 offered no apology for the CRPF action against the civilians and, in read, recounted that the Kashmir militants mounted 155 attacks on security forces in May and June. Indirectly the Government defended the CRPF action as something natural in the circumstances.
There were widespread protests against the Killings. The people of Srinagar observed a protest strike; there was tension in the town. The government imposed cur few restrictions in most part of the city and armed forces were called out. The government offered to hold an enquiry by the additional chief secretary but the people had no faith in the fairness of the
Authorities and they decided to boycott the enquiry proceedings.
Mohd Saleem Jan, a 13-yrold apprentice to a mechanic at an automobile workshop in Chhotta Bazar, was seriously injured.
An eye witness account
Having barely escaped death in the shooting by the security forces, Saleem told a group of journalists “A group of security men came t0 our workshop around 6:30 p.m. and caught hold of our workshop owner, Abdul Rashid, brushing aside his pleas. I saw them killing four of the workshop men with rifles. | lay down on the floor and sensing imminent death, grabbed the mangled pieces of my master’s body, put in my head and pretended to be dead. I could hear the security personnel hurling abuses and kicking all the bodies.
Seem Jan received a bullet injury in his skull. After the security personnel left, he got up and sought help from a residence. He bandaged his head in a sari and walked to the nearby SMHS Hospital.
Jan’s statement was corroborated by numerous other injured admitted to the hospital.
Dr.Maqbool Dar, a house surgeon on duty in the civil hospital who was not a roadside stall at the time of the shootout, said “A group of nine CRPF men came in a truck. They caught hold of me and refused to see even my identity card. 1 was shot at point blank range.” He rushed to the hospital after regaining consciousness. He was hit by a bullet in the neck.
“There was no firing on the patrol party, at least at the spot where I was injured,” he said.
An employee of the hospital, who sought anonymity, claimed that he was eye witness to the coldblooded murder of Ghulam Ahmeed, storekeeper of SMHS Hospital, outside which the incident took place.
Among the killed civilians were an old woman and a child. Most of the killed were passersby returning home before curfew hours.
Rajan Bakshi, DIG, Kashmir Range, said that none of the victims was a militant.” All the Killed are innocent citizens and that causes us great concern”.
About the sequence of the events, Bakshi said the police itself was bewildered over what exactly had provoked the CRPF personnel to open fire in a dense locality”.
The situation in the entre valley turned volatile with the shootout. The entire downtown area of Srinagar city was placed under curfew and the army deployed all over. All district headquarters observed a complete bandh in protest against the Chhotia Bazar killings. Angry civilians besieged the police control room late at night to get information about their missing relatives. “The scene of the shootout was splattered with blood and fire brigade tenders were washing the spot when journalists got permission from the Army to go near it in the morning.
Kashmir mourners fired upon
Yet another incident at the hands of the CRPF was investigated by a focal human rights group, the Peoples Basic Rights (Protection) Commission (PBRC) headed by Justice Mufti Bahauddin Farooqi, a former Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.
The “people’s commission of enquiry” setup, following requests from the public and boycott of the official inquiry commission, in its report, indicted the security forces for opening indiscriminate and unprovoked firing on a procession of mourners in Khanyar on May 8, resulting in death of 16civiliansand injury to at least 59, The report was based on a statement of 40 witnesses and no one appeared before the commission on behalf of the government.
The report was released to the press at Srinagar on June 26 which alleged that on May 8 a patrol party of the CRPF fired the first shot on a mob of about 80,000, which had assembled for the burial of five militant is killed in an earlier incident. Thereafter, the CRPF men on duty at the burial ground also joined the patrol party in opening indiscriminate fire on the mourners.
The commission alleged that while the CRPF men continued to fire for 10 minutes, they again opened fire when people returned to the spot to pick up the dead and injured in spite of the loud pleading of the local police officials.
Contesting the government claim that the CRPF patrol party had been fired upon by someone in the crowd the report asked how was it possible that no one from the security forces was even injured.
“Fifteen Kashmiris are being killed everyday”
About the motive behind the firing, the report said the government did not relish the support shown by the congregation at Khanyar for the militant sand the movement for the Kashmir’s right to self-determination, symbolized by them”.
Justice Farooqi said the commission was likely to take up another inquiry into the June 11 firing on innocent people in the Chhotta Bazar area in Srinagar in response to public pressure.
Justice Farooqi said the commission had filed habeas corpus petitions for the release of at least 100 innocent youths who had been unauthorized arrested, in the state High Court. Besides charging the security forces with Indiscriminate firing on mourners, Justice Farooqi said the security forces killed on an average 15 Kashmiris day. He also charged the security forces with rape, arson, looting and indiscriminate arrests and torture 10 the unauthorizedly detained persons.
The PHRO had earlier investigated the massacre of the mourners at Srinagar on May 21,1990 by the CRPF following the assassination of Mirwaiz. Maulvi The report, a 45page booklet “The Kashmir Massacre”, alleged that May 21 firing by the CRPF was not only totally unprovoked ,brutal and inspired by communal passion but was preplanned in which dozens of Kashmir Muslims were killed and over 100 injured .
Jagmohan’s description of
Kashmir Muslims
The then Governor Jagmohan described Kashmiri Muslims as “a gang of terrorists worth eliminating” to “save Kashmir for India”. In light of these remarks, the PHRO called upon the world opinion to react strongly to New Delhi’s cruel strategy of punishing Kashmiri masses for their political views.
The U.S State Department reacted strongly and Jagmohan was withdrawn immediately by the then VP Singh Government.
What difference does Jagmohans recall from Kashmir make to the situation? Jagmohan, after all, was implementing “a policy” set out by the Government of India That was, in effect, the policy drafted by intelligence agencies, a policy of brutal suppression. Must that policy remain intact?
What i, therefore, required is not a new Governor for Kashmir and Punjab but new policy for them, a new deal for them, deal that must meet the aspirations of the people of these regions and nations.
All this presupposes the dawn of states man ship. That statesmanship, alias, is a scare commodity in today’s India. What abounds in India is low cunning and high handedness, and the fast evolution of high caste, high finance militarized fascist state that must of necessity suppress all forms of dissent raised by minorities and minority regions and now by other democratic elements including the Press.
Harassment of editors and other journalists and seizure and destruction of newspapers have become a routine affair in India
Kashmir journalists in detention fifty members of Kashmir journalist Association and Kashmir Editors Conference were arrested on June 21 at Srinagar, when they tried to hold a sit in to protest against “anti-Press policies” of the Kashmir government, according to a report from New Delhi.
The police earlier cordoned off the house of journalists to prevent them from hold in the sit in but they managed to reach the Central telegraph office with banners. The shouted slogans against the government police. Later all the journalists were leased.
In Chandigarh the police confiscated thousands of copies of the Times of India a leading national daily, and Jan Satta Hindi daily of the Indian Express chain to newspapers for carrying news regarding the activities of Punjab militants. Surprisingly, according to Jan Satta management the newspaper was allowed to be circulated in Punjab but not in the Union Territory 0 Chandigarh, directly administered by the government of India, PHRO president
Sukhdev Singh reported from Chandigarh.
The crackdown on the Press
The copies of the Times of India were seized because it carried a news item siting that wall posters fad appeared Ludhiana warning the public against casting votes in the elections.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 8, 1991
