KavkazCenter - Human rights groups should visit Kashmir

Human rights groups should visit Kashmir

The Coalition of Civil Society (CCS) has demanded of India to allow international human rights organizations to visit occupied Kashmir so that they could see for themselves the number of persons who have been disappeared over the past 17 years in Indian troops custody. The demand was made by Pervez Imroz, the CCS President, during a programme held in Srinagar, Kashmir to protest against the custodial and enforced disappearances of Kashmiris by the troops in the occupied territory. He referred to a team of the European Union (EU), which had also made similar demands. Imroz said that the so-called commissions have been appointed so far but these had not proved successful in stopping the practice of the custodial killings as well as fake encounters. He said, the number of such disappearances in occupied Kashmir was unprecedented, which exceeded the figure of 10,000. Imroz regretted that the Government of India had not allowed even the Amnesty International to conduct probes in the occupied territory regarding this grave situation. He pointed out that the irony was that India was a signatory to the covenant for Protection of All Persons from Involuntary and Enforced Disappearances adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 19, 2006. The CCS president said that Indian troops were enjoying impunity against any punishment for their crimes against humanity, as they were equipped with the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). Imroz said that India had awarded promotions to the police officers involved in custodial killings and fudged the DNA samples and other related things, which he added proved that India was not at all serious in bringing to book those guilty of killing and disappearing Kashmiri youth.

Source: KMS