The killing fields of Kashmir

By Momin Iftikhar | Published: August 29, 2011

With the dismantling of Khmer Rouge of Cambodia, who killed thousands of innocent civilians to pave the way for their bloody revolution and buried them in shallow graves of the countryside, one thought that the term “killing fields” had faded into history. Yet, this feared and despicable phenomenon has come alive with a vengeance with the publishing of a report by the Jammu and Kashmir State Human Rights Commission (J&KSHRC), which asserts that the Indian security forces, as a routine practice, have been killing innocent local civilians, labelling them as “crossborder terrorists”, and dumping their disfigured and mutilated bodies in the swampy mass graves strung all along the Line of Control (LoC).

The reports that there were mass graves containing bodies of innocent local residents, who had been shot and killed by the Indian security forces in fake encounters to win cash awards, gallantry citations and promotions had been doing the rounds in IHK’s civil society, even as the State Government remained in an entrenched state of denial. In fact, the J&KSHRC Commission, which has formally and officially identified the mass graves in Kashmir, was a sequel to a campaign launched by the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) that, in March 2008, had released a chilling report, Facts underground, revealing the documented presence of mass graves in the bordering areas along the LoC. The report identified 1,000 unmarked graves in 55 villages across the northern regions of Baramulla, Bandipore and Handwara, following which the researchers and other social activists identified thousands of single and mass graves without markers.

In December 2009, the International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights released another report, which confirmed the presence of mass graves entombing bodies of those killed in “encounters, fake encounters, and extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions.” The latest quasi-official report compiled by the J&KSHRC corroborates APDP’s Facts underground, and comes after a three-year long inquiry by an 11-member team led by Bashir Ahmad Matoo, a senior Superintendent of Police who is heading the investigative wing of the Commission.
During the course of investigations, the Commission confirmed the presence of 2,156 unidentified dead bodies that had been buried at 38 sites. There were 21 unmarked mass graves at Baramulla, three each in Bandipore and Handwara, and 11 in Kupwara. According to the report, all bodies carried bullet wounds, were disfigured, had mutilated faces, and some even partially burnt. These had been handed over by the police to the local population for Muslim burial and were classified as unidentified mujahideen from across the border. The findings of the Commission constitute the first official acknowledgement that innocent civilians killed by the Indian army and other counterinsurgency outfits lie buried in unmarked graves spread over the IHK’s landscape. The report stops short of identifying the bitter and brutal truth that innocent locals had been killed to enhance the Indian government’s hypothesis of cross border terrorism; “there is every possibility that…….various unmarked graves at 38 places of north Kashmir may contain dead bodies of locals,” it says.

With the discovery of the mass graves, the Indian government is squarely confronted with a serious charge to answer and a dilemma to surmount. Unlawful killings, enforced disappearances and torture are violations of both international human rights law and international humanitarian law set out in treaties to which India is a state party. To clear its name of charges of genocide of Kashmiris, it has to ensure that independent and impartial investigations are initiated on all identified sites of the mass graves in IHK. Whether the Indian government will ever have the political will and moral courage to follow through the findings of the Commission remains an open question.

To make the process credible, as a first step all the discovered sites need to be secured through neutral observers to ensure that the physical state of evidence is not tempered with by the strong and powerful segments of the Indian military apparatus. One has to be mindful that almost all the sites are close to LoC where the Indian military holds complete sway. Secondly, the mass graves revealed so far, only account for about 20 percent of the number of missing persons compiled by the APDP. Many more graves - their number possibly in hundreds - are waiting to be officially acknowledged and pinpointed. Certainly, there must be a serious and credible effort on India’s part to search for and locate these sites. Third, what is more important is to ensure that related investigations are conducted by forensic experts in line with the UN model protocol on disinterment and analysis of the skeletal remains. India is not advanced enough to conduct such complicated investigation and in order to accord legitimacy to the process should seek and accept offers of assistance and cooperation from international experts.
At the larger canvas, the discovery of mass graves containing bodies of locals - dubbed as foreign terrorists - has exposed the myth of “crossborder terrorism” so assiduously built up by the Indian spin doctors. It has also exposed the culture of fake encounters rampant among the officer corps of the Indian army and paramilitary units operating in the IHK to secure rewards and promotions. The immunity from prosecution and blanket powers enjoyed by the Indian security forces operating in the disputed valley through provisions of the draconian laws, like the AFSPA, can be singled out as the major contributory factor leading to the piling up of corpses in mass graves whose inmates’ silent cries go abegging for justice for the tragic end to their wasted lives.

The writer is a freelance columnist.