Q: Four people were shot and killed by the paramilitary force CRPF in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir. The police describe two of them as militants, but the families and local villagers have insisted that all four were civilians. They were killed soon before Zubin Mehta started the performance. Do you think there will be an investigation into the deaths? How has the Jammu and Kashmir government responded? A. The response has been denial. The police claimed that these boys were killed in a gun battle. It is a blatant lie. All four of them were civilians and not militants. Many civilians have been killed this year in Kashmir, but not even a single perpetrator of violence has been punished. It is part of an old pattern of impunity in Kashmir. The sanction to prosecute any member of the security forces has always been denied under the Armed Special Powers Act. I fear the killings in Shopian district will meet the same wall of impunity. The killings in Shopian district on the day of the concert exposed the reality of Kashmir to the world. Had there not been a heightened deployment of troops for the concert throughout Kashmir, had the German ambassador not been stubborn and callous, those four boys might have been alive.
Posted on: Mon, 09 Sep 2013 15:28:21 +0000
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