DNA:
New Delhi: Thursday, 02 July 2015.
According to
information obtained under the Right to Information Act (RTI), in 35,753
recorded incidents of police firing 17,064 civilians lost lives since 1988. The
same RTI also noted that 2,832 police personnel have lost their lives during
the same period, while a staggering 33,046 sustained injuries.
As many as four
incidents of police firing which claim on an average two civilians' lives are
taking place on a daily basis in the country, going by the last 25 years' data.
The staggering data has yet again raised concerns among the fraternity working
for civil rights who claim that the data is quite an evidence on how Supreme
Court and High Court guidelines have been and continue to be violated by police
forces across the country.
The data,
compiled by National Crime Bureau Record from 1988 to 2013, shows 18,710
civilians have been injured during incidents of police firing all over the
country with states like Punjab, Andhra Pradesh (undivided), Maharashtra,
Bihar, Assam and Jammu and Kashmir registering the maximum number of
casualities.
People's
Watch (Tamil Nadu) executive director Henri Tiphagne, who had led an
independent fact-finding team to investigate the 'encounter' killings into
Seshachalam forests in Andhra, said the extremely poor record of prosecution of
police officers involved in firing incidents and encounters "emboldens the
police to commit more of such incidents". Tiphange was also a member of
the core group of NGOs that worked with the National Human Rights Committee
during 2001-2011 period.
"The
numbers show an utter disregard to the Constitution of this country, guidelines
of the Supreme Court, High Court and NHRC directives. Moreover, while NHRC
tries its best to compensate victims, the record for prosecuting police
officers is very bad," he said.
The highest
number of civilian causalities in police firing was recorded in Punjab with as
many as 3,803 people loosing their lives. The RTI, which does not include the
data from the year 1998, shows that 2,432 people were killed in Jammu and Kashmir
and 2,098 in Andhra. As many as 1,574 civilians were killed in Maharashtra,
while the toll in Bihar was recorded at 1,152.
South
Delhi-based RTI activist Ved Pal, who had filed the application last month,
said data on killings of and by naxalities or terrorists receives a lot of
attention but civilian deaths at the hand of the state is rarely discussed.
"The deaths are of civilians and it is not a good sign that police kill
17,000 of them," said Pal.
In the North
Eastern states, Assam recorded 665 killings while the insurgency-hit Manipur
registered a surprising 67 civilian deaths. It is, however, to be noted that
the figures from insurgency-hit states, including J&K, Manipur and Punjab,
do not include deaths during the counter insurgency operations in which Army
personnel operated alongside local police. The data also does not include
deaths of suspected militants.The record does not show any causalities.
During the
same period J& K recorded the highest number of deaths of police officers
with 573 followed by 381 in Punjab. It is interesting to note that the data
shows a staggering disparity between the number of injured and killed in the
state of Punjab during late 80s and early 90s post Khalistan movement. While a
colossal 3,786 civilians were killed between 1988 to 1993, a total of 130
people sustained injuries in police action.
As many as
275 personnel were killed in Andhra, 158 in Maharashtra and 161 in Bihar during
the same period. Also 162 police officers were killed in Assam while Manipur
recorded deaths of 25 personnel. In the national capital 78 people were killed
in police firing while three officers were killed in 208 incidents till 2013.
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