The endless custodial killings and human rights violations in occupied Kashmir have been raised time and again by the international community and human rights organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, but all those pleas have fallen on deaf ears, as no practical step has ever been taken by India to stop these abuses and the hollow claims of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about 'zero tolerance' seem a far cry.
Although the puppet Chief Minister Omar Abdullah pledged exemplary punishment for persons involved in the custodial death of Nazim Rashid, the history of inquires ordered since his administration took over in 2009 do not show any sign of justice to the victims.
Nazim Rashid, 28, was killed in police custody in Sopore on July 30, 2011 after he was picked up by the personnel of Special Operations Group of Indian police and Army for questioning in connection with killing of a civilian by unidentified persons.
On July 31, Nazim's father, Abdul Rashid Shalla, who has served in the occupied Kashmir's police department as an inspector, learned about the death of his son in custody through media. He also came to know that authorities without informing him had carried out postmortem of his slain son. Talking to media men, Shalla said that he saw the body and there were visible marks of torture. “His body was swollen since they forcibly fed him buckets of water,” he said. His words were echoed by a government official, who was present at the time of postmortem. “The body was swollen and torture marks could be seen on it,” the official said, pleading anonymity.
On August 10, 2011 statements of the medicos who conducted autopsy on the body of Shalla were recorded. The medicos reportedly confirmed torture marks on the victim's body.
Sub-Divisional Magistrate Sopore, Muhammad Ahsan Mir, probing the custodial killing, recorded the statements of three medicos.
“There were torture marks on his (Nazim's) body and apparently it seemed that he died due to torture,” doctors told the inquiry officer.
Mir also visited Tarzoo Police Station to leave no room for any laxity in the investigation as Krankshivan Colony where from the deceased hailed falls in its jurisdiction.
“It was necessary as far as investigation is concerned. He (inquiry officer) found there was no lock-up or place to confine people, which indicated that he died in the SOG camp,” media reports quoting sources said.
In the past, similar kind of incidents in occupied Kashmir were always hushed up by the puppet regimes, but it was a 'strange' and 'pleasant' surprise that the puppet Chief Minister admitted that it was an inexcusable human rights violation and claimed to punish the perpetrators. His directives to the local administration for not sparing the guilty have given this case very importance and people are looking the killing as a litmus test for the Omar Abdullah regime. They definitely want to know as how far the writ of the present regime runs in the law enforcing agencies.
Killing of Nazim Rashid in police custody once again highlighted the bitter reality that custodial killings are still taking place in occupied Kashmir. It is all happening at a time when the situation is far better and people tend to staging peaceful protests to show their aggression against such incidents. Custodial killings had been a norm at a time when the struggle for freedom from Indian occupation was intensified during 1990s, but such killings when Kashmiris have been utilizing peaceful means to secure their inalienable right to self-determination are nothing but an uncalled for provocation from the authorities.
Killing people in custody just indicates the brutality of the mindset of perpetrators and inhuman behaviour. Using third degree torture to extract information from a person is a norm in most parts of the third world countries. But it is an inhuman act and is considered as barbarism by the West and now when this kind of killings are often taking place in occupied Kashmir, the international community must impress upon India to take practical steps for stopping the occurrence of such incidents. The perpetrators behind the crime should be punished. But one cannot attach even a little hope with any such thing to happen keeping in mind the case of rape and assassination of two women in Shopian in 2009 in which all means and measures were adopted by the law enforcing agencies to protect the culprits. So if India does not want to be embarrassed before the international community, then it must provide justice to the family of Nazim Rashid.
In occupied Kashmir thousands of people have been subjected to disappearance in custody and nobody knows about their fate. Only God knows about their whereabouts. India needs to realize that liberation movements cannot be suppressed by sheer force and brutal killings. In fact these methods add more fuel to the fire and inflame the passions.
It has been observed that after every such killing Kashmiri people are promised stern action against the culprits, but history stands testimony to the fact that none of the criminals behind such incidents had ever been punished. Its latest example is the Shopian double rape and murder case, which had jolted the Kashmir Valley in 2009. But Indian security apparatus did all it could to hush up the matter and protect the perpetrators.
The people of Kashmir have only lived with the hollow promises made by Indian prime ministers and the puppet regimes in the past and present. They have only witnessed initiation of inquiries against the culprits behind custodial killings and always watched them go scot-free. And all this is because law enforcing agencies including army, paramilitary forces and more particularly the Special Task Force (STF) and its Special Operation Group continue to enjoy the impunities under draconian laws in occupied Kashmir. So who will dare to challenge their authority?
The time is ripe when normal policing should be introduced in the occupied territory. The superstructures like STF and SOG in police act as spoiling the whole situation. They should be reined in because people want justice and it is the duty of police to provide them this very basic human right. The STF and SOG like superstructures should be abolished.
The situation in occupied Kashmir calls for a deep introspection on the part of Omar Abdullah regime, as one more incident of rape or custodial killing could be critical for the situation in the Valley. The law enforcing agencies must also tame the superstructures, as their authorities have literally failed to tame down these rogue elements.
The youth in occupied Kashmir are very well aware of the situation, they can assess the entire scenario. And in today's global village when they have access to satellite TV and internet, they can watch and read the day-to-day developments around the world and can make their calculations as what is happening in Kashmir and other parts of the world. Sometimes question arises in their minds that why the international community is not taking solid action against India when human rights violations are taking place at large scale in occupied Kashmir? Why United Nations is not playing its due role in settling the Kashmir dispute as per the aspirations of Kashmiri people? Why the US, the sole super power of the world, is not influencing India to resolve the Kashmir problem once and for all? But they can't find answers to these questions because all these organizations or countries play their role as per their own needs and it seems that they are insensitive to the sufferings of the Kashmiri people.
Kashmiris like rest of the world want to live peacefully. But the acts of custodial killings, rapes, tortures, arrests and humiliations force them to take to the streets. It is a fact that the Kashmiris would continue to face brutalities till Indian troops were present in Kashmir. So the time is ripe when authorities in occupied Kashmir and New Delhi realize the ground realities and respect the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
