By Azera Rahman, IANS,
New Delhi : Human rights violations by paramilitary forces have almost doubled in the last five years, the home ministry has acknowledged in response to a Right to Information (RTI) Act query.
In response to queries filed under the RTI Act, it was revealed that the total number of human rights violations in 2003-04 were 95 which increased to 180 by 2007-08.
Providing the information, an official of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) told IANS: “The data is not maintained force wise (in the paramilitary) or gender wise. But there has been an increase in the violations. In 2006-07 there were 173 violations, which increased to 180 as recorded on Jan 1, 2008”.
The violations have been of various kinds. Arbitrary use of power, abduction or kidnapping, rape, abuse of power, custodial death, custodial rape, custodial torture, death in shootout, fake shootout and illegal detention are some of them.
As per the latest data, the maximum number of violations, 52, have been of arbitrary use of power. Twenty one cases of death in firing and 10 cases of fake shootouts are the other two most often committed violations in 2007-08.
“In all there have been 591 cases of human rights violations by the paramilitary forces in the last five years. NHRC has taken cognizance of five cases and has recommended a compensation amount of Rs.750,000,” the NHRC official said.
On their part, in 2007-08 the paramilitary forces have disposed of 56 complaints alleging human rights violations. They closed 15 cases after considering reports received from the concerned authorities and rejected 68 more.
In all, over the past five years, the paramilitary forces have disposed of 93 cases after considering reports from concerned authorities, 228 with direction; 196 cases were dismissed without consideration and one has been transferred to the state human rights commission.