By TwoCircles.net news desk,
The Jammu and Kashmir state government should protect Parvez Imroz, an award-winning human rights lawyer who survived an armed attack on June 30 in Srinagar by alleged security forces members, Human Rights Watch said today. The state government and Human Rights Commission should launch an immediate and thorough investigation into the attack and take criminal action against those responsible.
“The Kashmir government should investigate whether the attack on Imroz was related to his work,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, senior South Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “All members of the security forces found responsible, no matter how far up the chain of command, should be prosecuted.”
According to Imroz, on the night of June 30, nine or 10 men wearing uniforms of the state police and the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force appeared at his Srinagar home and demanded that he come outside. Imroz had recently been investigating scores of unmarked graves in Kashmir to determine if those buried were “disappeared” or part of “fake encounter killings.”
Apprehensive because of previous assassination attempts, Imroz and his wife refused to open the door and called for the help of his brother, Sheik Mustaq Ahmad, who lives next door. Ahmad came out with a flashlight and asked the group of men to identify themselves, but they refused and ordered him to switch off the light. When Imroz’s nephew ran out toward Imroz’s house, one of the men opened fire, but missed. Another man then tossed a grenade at Imroz’s house, which exploded but caused no injuries. When neighbors began to gather, the men left after using tear gas and firing blank shots to disperse the crowd. They also beat up a male neighbor.
Imroz, president of the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society and a founder of the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons, was awarded the Ludovic-Trarieux International Human Rights Prize in 2006. For many years, he has been documenting abuses and filing court cases to address the widespread problem of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Kashmir. His work investigating unmarked graves is done as a convener of an unofficial tribunal created by human rights activists. Indian intelligence officials have repeatedly questioned tribunal members.
Since the beginning of the insurgency in Kashmir in 1989, thousands of Kashmiris have gone missing. Imroz and others, including Human Rights Watch, have established that many have been victims of enforced disappearance, which occurs when authorities take individuals into custody and then deny all responsibility or knowledge of their fate or whereabouts. In some recent cases, government investigations have found that security forces have picked up and killed civilians, and later constructed a fake armed encounter with militants in their official report to the police. Senior members of the security forces have admitted to Human Rights Watch that the government has been responsible for many killings, and that unidentified militants executed by the security forces are buried by villagers in unmarked graves.
“Impunity has led members of the security forces to believe that they can get away with attacks such as the attempt on Parvez Imroz,” said Ganguly. “By punishing the individuals who tried to attack him, the government can send a strong message about its commitment to protect human rights defenders.”