KL Report
SRINAGAR
The erring CRPF personnel in Shopian should be identified and booked under law, said a group of leaders in a joint statement. While expressing serious concern over the prevailing situation following the killings of innocent civilians in Shopian, the statement reads that the situation demands an “immediate and serious approach” and any casual or adhoc advances to put the problem on the backburner will only precipitate the crisis further.
The joint statement by Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami- State Secretary CPI (M), Hakim Mohammad Yasin- Chairman PDF, Abdul Rashid Kabuli Chairman JKNDF, Sheikh Abdul Rehman- state president Samajwadi Party, Abdul Rehman Tukru- State Secretary CPI, reads that the culprits should be booked under law. “It should be made clear that no institution or any individual is above law. If anyone has violated the law and has not been brought to book yet, it is an insult to the whole justice delivery system.”
The statement further reads that “the civilian killings in Shopian refresh the memories of firing on peaceful protesters in 2010 and in absence of any accountability; these memories have only inculcated into a default anti national sentiment. It is ironic that instead of prosecuting the guilty in the 2010 civilian killings, nearly 6,000 people especially the youth were imprisoned for varying periods thus marring their careers and traumatizing their families.”
“Three years have passed since those merciless over 120 killings; people still await answers for what happened to perpetrators who snatched their near and dear ones and who are yet to be brought to justice. Not a single case out of over 120 civilian killings has reached to any logical conclusion and in most of these cases the families of victims are facing secondary victimization at the hands of administration.”
About the ordered inquiries, the statement reads that people seem pessimistic about the fate of government probe ordered in Shopian incident. Ordering magisterial inquires, Commissions of inquiries or judicial probes have lost its meaning in Kashmir. “Just to put it very simple, the inaction on part of the government to act on the findings of these inquires and probes, has eroded the credibility of all these probes and inquires. People now perceive, these probes and inquires are a handy weapon to cool down tempers and buy time after the innocent civilian killings. This serious trend, fraught with dangerous consequences need to be arrested.”
They have further appealed to all democratic voices of the country that they must impress upon the government of India to create the conditions for a meaningful dialogue process with all shades of political opinion in Jammu and Kashmir. “The democratic protests must be allowed as the absence of dissenting spaces can further strengthen elements inimical to peace. Imprisoning young activists and imposing continuous restrictions on separatist voices frequently undercut their ability to (ever) enter into a dialogue process.”
