Killers In Khaki

The recent spate of fake encounters in the Valley has sent shock waves among civilians

PICTURE SPEAK

BITTERNESS AND RAGE: Protesters carry the body of a victim of a fake encounter (above); a child holds up a picture of a missing youth

Recently, Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad conceded on the floor of the state legislature that in the last two years, there have been 11 custodial deaths, seven custodial disappearances and not less than 20 cases of rape and molestation by the police and other security officials. The State Human Rights Commission (SHRC), however, alleged in its report tabled during the same Assembly session that there were 36 custodial disappearances, 25 cases of harassment and 20 custodial deaths in one year alone. These figures were preceded by definitive cases of custodial murders by officials of the sog.

At least seven police officials, including SSP H.R. Parihar and Deputy SP Bahadur Ram, were arrested while scores were detained for interrogation. The police officers picked up labourers and menial workers, robbed them of their belongings, branded them as foreign militants and killed them in “joint operations” with the army and the CRPF. In all the cases, the SOG and the army had filed fake firs in the police records and claimed they had recovered rifles and other ammunition from the “slain foreign militants”. These murders would fetch the officials cash rewards and promotions.

VALLEY OF DEATH

ABDUL REHMAN PADDER DIED: December 8, 2006 OFFICIAL RECORD: Police gunned down Abu Zahid of LeT REALITY: He was picked up by SOG in Srinagar, body was found on Feb 1, ’07 SHOWKAT AHMED KATARIA DIED: October 5, 2006 OFFICIAL RECORD: SOG and army killed a Pakistani militant in a joint operation REALITY: On Feb 3, ’07, the body was identified as that of civilian Kataria ALI MOHAMMAD PADDER DIED: March 4, 2006 OFFICIAL RECORD: Police killed Pakistani militant Shaheen Bhai REALITY: Body was exhumed and identified as that of Padder on Feb 3, ’07 NAZIR AHMED DEKA DIED: February 16, 2006 OFFICIAL RECORD: Pakistani militant died in an encounter in Ganderbal REALITY: On Feb 2, ’07, the body was exhumed and identified as Deka’s GHULAM NABI WANI DIED: March 13, 2006 OFFICIAL RECORD: Police shot dead Pakistani militant Zulfikar REALITY: Wani was picked up by SOG and his body exhumed on Feb 3, ’07

Another arrested police official, constable Farooq Ahmed, who surfaced as the common link in all these staged killings, would bring the “kills” for the officers from Larnoo, his village. He was not only rewarded by his superiors, but he also took money from the families of the victims for apparently helping to locate them. “When my husband went missing, the constable came to us saying he would help us find him,” says Abdul Rehman’s wife Muneera, who had paid him Rs 75,000.

Allegations of extra-judicial killings by security agencies have been piling on since the onset of militancy in the state. In 2000, the army killed five civilians and labelled them as foreign militants responsible for the massacre of 35 Sikhs. In 2005, it killed four Hindu porters from Jammu, dubbing them as Pakistani militants.

Following the recent exhumations, resentment in the Valley is strong. Political pressure has led Azad to order a judicial probe into the killings. He has also announced that the Government will probe all incidents of human rights violation in the state since 1990. This includes the issue of disappearances. Azad puts the number of the missing persons since 1990 at 1,017. His predecessor, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, had pegged it at 3,931 in 2003. However, rights groups say up to 10,000 people have gone missing in the last 17 years of turmoil. “The Government wants to project a rosy picture of the human rights situation, so it is suppressing the figures,” alleges Abdul Rahim Rather, leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly.

It has been four months since the Government announced a commission to investigate human rights abuse, but it is yet to be set up. “Let there be a probe by an independent body. The Government is a party to the affair, we can’t expect an impartial investigation from it,” says Pervez Imroz, legal aide of the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons. “There are mass graves with unidentified bodies located in the vicinity of army and SOG camps,” he adds. A graveyard at Batmohalla Sumbal, where Padder was buried after the “encounter”, has 40 graves of suspected militants.

Meanwhile, the police have refreshed their efforts to build a professional image. Before the cases of fake encounters emerged, they had been working hard to establish a people-friendly image after the then chairman of the SHRC, Justice A.M. Mir, resigned saying his commission was “beating a dead horse”. “Our investigation will punish guilty officials and also restore the credibility of genuine operations by the security forces,” asserts dig Ahmed. But the fact that people’s perception of the force has received another stinging blow is not lost on anyone.

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