Livemint: New Delhi: Friday, July 28, 2017.
Data released
by home ministry in response to RTI query shows Manipur ranks third, after
Jammu & Kashmir, Assam in human rights abuses under AFSPA.
Even as it
mulls over the future of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in the
northeast, the Union home ministry has released data revealing human rights
violations under the controversial Act are the highest in Jammu and Kashmir,
followed by Assam. The documents which have been made public through a Right to
Information (RTI) query filed by Venkatesh Naik, a human rights activist, show
that Jammu and Kashmir tops the list of human rights violations committed under
the AFSPA, with 92 complaints against the Indian Army and paramilitary forces
in 2016. Assam comes in second with 58 complaints, Manipur third at 21, while
Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh follow next at five and six complaints,
respectively.
Of the 186
complaints received, 74 were against the Indian Army. Death in army encounters
saw 24 complaints. Death in army firings saw 16 complaints, while there were 21
cases of alleged fake encounters and 10 cases of rape and abduction.
The home
ministry has made it clear that all security personnel deployed in conflict
zones governed by AFSPA have to abide by a strict code of conduct.
“For
preventing human rights violations under the AFSPA, guidelines have been issued
for the armed forces. Violation of these guidelines by members of the Armed
Forces makes them liable for prosecution under the Army Act and the respective
Acts of the CAPFs (central armed police forces),” a home ministry official said
on condition of anonymity.
An army
officer who did not wish to be identified said the human rights cells of the
Army and the CAPFs closely monitored alleged human rights violations.
Experts and
former army officials, however, stated that in conflict regions such as Jammu
and Kashmir given the recent onslaught of stone-pelting on the forces “human
rights violations” took on a very different meaning.
“If a soldier
rapes a woman, he deserves a punishment that’s severe. There is no other
punishment. But for situations where civilians are throwing stones at the
soldiers or hindering security operations, the soldiers have to defend
themselves because civilians there who pelt stones at forces don’t care for the
lives of a soldier,” said Gaurav Arya, defence expert and former Indian Army
officer.
An expert on
the issues of the northeast, however, stated that the matter was totally
different in the region with Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur and
Nagaland under AFSPA, the armed forces enjoyed impunity despite gross
violations.
The expert
said that a majority of the “encounters” carried out in the northeast were
staged.
“There is a
huge mafia nexus in the region, especially Assam that identifies people who
can’t leave a trail and whose disappearance will not be reported. They are then
sold to the security forces, passed off as ‘militants’ and killed in
‘encounters’,” said Kishalay Bhattacharjee, author and expert on northeast
India. On 14 July, in a breakthrough judgment, the Supreme Court for the first
time took cognizance of 1,528 cases of fake encounters under AFSPA in Manipur,
ordering a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into 97 of them.
Ordinarily,
if there are human rights violations, the complainant can approach the police
station, which conducts an immediate inquiry into the allegation and then
lodges a first information report (FIR). The security forces too conduct
parallel semi judicial processes. At the same time, the CBI can also be ordered
by a higher court to investigate or re-investigate such allegations.