Almost 50 cases of human rights violation in 5 months

Sumegha Gulati
Srinagar, June 27: Since January 2009, thirty-six people have lost their lives in different violence related incidents in the Valley excluding unidentified bodies, renegades, political activists and Village Defence Committee members, reveals the figures obtained from various civil society observers. Besides, four cases of custodial killings, six cases of alleged enforced disappearances and three cases of rape, which include the recent Shopian twin rape-and-murder-case, have come to the forefront.

Out of these 49 cases, magisterial probe was ordered just in 13 incidents and it was followed up in only six cases by the concerned authorities.

The graveness of the situation does not end here as out of the 6 cases that were followed up by the officials, only 3 yielded “some” results.
The Bomai incident, which had invoked massive protests in the Baramullah district, resulted in the shifting of the Rajinder Post to the premises of SK University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology after a 32-day long agitation by the protestors.

The custodial killing of Manzoor Ali Beig at the hands of the SOG had resulted in the concerned official being suspended. However, no ex-gratia relief has been received by the family as yet.

The recent volatile Shopian case had led to the suspension of four police officials who had supposedly with held vital information regarding the culprits. However, the culprits who performed the dastardly acts have yet to be brought into books.

The data cited is a compilation of all the reports collected from the various police stations as well as the news items that have appeared in the various media across the valley.

Insiders claim that this might represent a minuscule percentage of the actual number of cases that have taken place since the beginning of this year.

“Scores of such cases go unreported each day in the far flung areas of the valley. Lack of awareness, inadequate means to pursue the cases, risk to the well being of the family members and the social stigma attached to such cases, particularly rapes and molestations, results in many of such instances going unaccounted for”, opined an activist working with a local NGO.