Kashmir CM says zero violations impossible

Jammu
Jan 31, 2007:

Chief Minister of Indian administered Kashmir, Ghulam Nabi Azad today said that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's promise of zero-tolerance against the human right violations could not be implemented in letter and spirit.

Azad said that while the State wanted that the human rights violations should completely end, bringing them to zero-level was almost next to impossible.

"There've been laws in India against gory crimes like rape, murders and plunder since independence but that doesn't mean that such crimes don't happen in the state," Azad told the special session of the Kashmir Legislature called in the backdrop of the killing of a Kashmiri carpenter from south Kashmiri Abdul Rehman Padder in an alleged fake encounter at Ganderbal in central Kashmir by the State Police.

Azad also ordered a judicial probe into Padder's killing. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had promised zero-tolerance against human rights violations in the state.

However, allegations of excesses by Indian troops and police have not stopped in the region.

Azad however lauded the role of security agencies and blamed "black sheep" in the police and troops for carrying out such extra judicial killings.

Earlier, the members of the state Legislative Assembly from both the opposition and treasury benches exhibited unity demanding a judicial probe into the Padder's killing.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) state head Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami said the human rights violations carried by troops could not be defended by saying that the militants too violated the human rights.

"Troops are supposed to be accountable at all costs. They needed to follow the rule of law," Tarigami said.

National Confernece MLA Mehboob Beg ridiculed the troops for aping the western concept of terminologies on the human rights violations like "collateral damage".

"These terminologies created by the US troops and western media for hiding the violations of troops are unfortunately being aped here," Beg said.

He said more than 100 probes into the human rights violations in the state since the outbreak of turmoil in late Eighties had been ordered in the past but added that the findings of none had been made public.

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