I recently learned of the death of Ram Narayan Kumar, an Indian human rights activist, in Nepal. Kumar, who died of natural causes, is well known in the Sikh community as the staunchest non-Sikh advocate of human rights in Punjab. What drove Mr. Kumar, as far as I can tell, was a pure, principled belief in human rights and democracy, not self-interest or any sense of loyalty to the Sikh community. After 20 years of investigating primary sources and personally documenting thousands of human rights violations in Punjab, in the past few years Kumar shifted his focus to India’s northeast — places like Nagaland and Assam — where human rights intervention may be most urgently needed now.
I got to see Ram Narayan Kumar speak in New York several years ago, and was impressed by how methodical and dispassionate he was as he spoke about his attempt to document extrajudicial killings and cremations of prisoners during the peak of the Punjab militancy period in the 1980s. Many Sikhs have taken up this cause over the years (indeed, activists still show up at local Gurdwaras every June to lecture about it), but too often emotion takes over from empirical evidence and the need to provide rock-solid documentation. Ram Narayan Kumar focused on the latter, not because he advocated any political cause, but because he had faith in the idea of Indian democracy, and demanded that the system he believed in be truthful, accountable, and transparent.
Though he wrote several books, Mr. Kumar’s greatest legacy may be his rigorous documentation efforts of extrajudicial killings by the Punjab Police, which are partially collected in the massive book, Reduced to Ashes: The Insurgency and Human Rights in Punjab. For those who are interested, that book has been posted in its entirety here (PDF, 4.9 MB). I would particularly recommend the documentation section, starting around page 205.
The issue that stood out to me in Ram Narayan Kumar’s quest for justice related specifically to the illegal cremation of 2000+ prisoners who were killed in police custody in Punjab in the 1980s. We may never know exactly what happened to these prisoners, or how they died; a Supreme Court ordered CBI investigation has remained sealed, and its contents unknown. But cremation records were at least kept, and provide an unmistakable record. As a result of the efforts of Kumar and others, in 2006, the Indian government’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) issued monetary awards to the families of 1245 prisoners who were cremated in the mid-1980s. Below is a brief excerpt from one of Kumar’s more recent books outlining what happened over the decade of legal proceedings that led to a final resolution (albeit a somewhat unsatisfying one) in October, 2006. For reference, here is the National Human Rights Commission’s order related to its Punjab human rights investigation, dated October, 2006. The report is on an Indian government website (Nhrc.nic.in).
And below is an abbreviated version of Ram Narayan Kumar’s account of his investigation, quoted from Kumar’s 2008 book Terror in Punjab: Narratives, Knowledge, and Truth. I’ll pick up the account after the disappearance of Jaswant Singh Khalra, the human rights activist who first discovered the record of the mass cremations, who was himself disappeared by the Punjab police in 1995:
On 6 September 1995, Khalra himself disappeared. That morning, Punjab police officers kidnapped him from his Amritsar home. In November 1995, the Supreme Court instituted two inquiries to be conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The first inquiry aimed to determine what happened to Khalra. The second inquiry intended to establish the substance of the allegations that Khalra had made. In July 1996, the report of the first inquiry [I think he means, the second inquiry] categorized 2097 cremations into three lists of 585 identified, 274 partially identified and 1,238 unidentified corpses.
After receiving the CBI’s report, the Supreme court, in its order dated 12 December 1996, noted that it ‘disclosed flagrant violations of human rights on a mass scale.’ Instructing the CBI to investigate criminal culpability and to submit a quarterly progress report, the Court appointed the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to determine and adjudicate all other issues and to award compensation. The court’s order clearly said that ‘since the matter is going to be examined by the NHRC at the rquest of this court, any compensation awarded shall be binding and payable.’
[…]
After 10 years of litigation, exhausted mainly in futile legal wrangling and denials by the State agencies, the National Human Rights Commission disposed of the matter with its 10 October 2006 order, awarding arbitrary sums of monetary compensation to 1245 victims. The order divides 1245 victims of illegal cremations into two categories of ‘deemed custody,’ meaning those who were admitted to be in police custody prior to their death and cremation, and others whose police custody prior to their death and cremation was not admitted. The categorization is based on admissions and denials by the State of Punjab without further inquiry or verification and without the victim families receiving a chance to be heard. Under the first category, 194 families receive ‘the grant of monetary reief at the rate of Rs. 2.50 lakhs’ . . . Under the second category, the Commission’s order awards a grant of Rs. 1.75 lakhs . . . to 1051 victim families on the ground that the police cremated their relatives without following the procedure prescribed by the Punjab Police Rules.
[… ]
When the Supreme Court designated the NHRC to examine and determine ‘all the issues’ connected with the matter, it also entrusted the CBI to investigate criminal culpability and to submit a quarterly status report on its progress. Ten years later, nothing is known about the progress the CBI has made in its investigations. The quarterly reports, if they have been submitted, remain sealed and unseen. Yet, the NHRC’s final October 2006 order affirms faith that the State of Punjab and the Union of India will take appropriate steps to ensure taht violations do not recur. The faith is misplaced, to say the least, when the NHRC, through the procedure of investigation it followed, barred all ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions. How can there be a guarantee of non-recurrence when there is no knowledge of what occurred? These failures constitute a major blow to more than 10 years of work, and a hopeful engagement with the legal process for justice, reparation and accountability, which a small voluntary group of individuals attempted to develop.
The outcome is very disappointing. Yet, I am not taken aback. The atrocities and their denial, which I observed all these years, occurred in a climate of impunity and its surreal celebration, which is very aptly echoed in India’s ancient war epic, Mahabharata: ‘Yudisththira sat on the high summit of a mound of human skeletons. There, in a state of visible contentment, he ate his rice pudding out of a golden bowl.’ (Source: Terror in Punjab: Narratives, Knoweldge, and Truth)
In light of the life of Ram Narayan Kumar, a second quote from the Mahabharata seems appropriate:
To those who fall in war, victory or defeat makes no difference. All the good people — the courageous, the upright, the humble, and the compassionate — die first. The unscrupulous survive. Victory becomes the defeat of the good. (Mahabharata, Udhyoga Parva, Chapter 72, 15-72; link)
Thanks for the link to his book. He seems to be a pretty remarkable person, and I confess that I did not know very much about him before. I do hope someone is continuing his work in the North East, which I think is really a much harder place to document human rights abuses. There is a very nasty act called the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which has been used in insurgencies there for a very long time, and very likely, there is a much longer history of human rights abuses in the region.
Thanks for the write-up Amardeep. Ensaaf has created a page on Ram Narayan Kumar, who was a close friend and advisor, that links to some of his works: http://www.ensaaf.org/programs/community/kumar/
Also, the Punjab mass cremations case is still proceeding, and its ultimate resolution will occur in the Supreme Court. Here’s more info: http://www.ensaaf.org/programs/legal/pmc/
These efforts are very, very important – not only for the victims and their families – but most of all for those of us who support indian democracy and have good wishes for a prosperous and forward looking india.
Without this search of justice – however saddening the lack of progress may feel – there is no way to change things. And out of this struggle come institutions, techniques, legal judgements that will help avoid a repititions of these events.
Other folks who have impressed me with their firmness and dedication in this matter are Harvinder Singh Phoolka and jagjit singh arora (famous retired general).
I hate to be pedantic, but this use of the word “democracy” kind of bothers me. The riots in Punjab are one of the problems with democracy. Technically, what we want to support is Indian republicanism. A nation ruled by laws rather than men helps ensure that such things do not happen.
this guy sounds very impressive..i agree that until india genuinely resolves the issues of the 80s re Silk Massecre in Delhi, Hindu killings in Punjab, terroism, Blue Star, Police killings et cetra..India can not move forward as a true democracy..real culprits need to be bought to book, even if that includes the rulers..
Amardeep, thanks for this post. Thank you, Ensaaf, for your links too.
Sadly, I heard of Ram Narayan Kumar only a few days ago when I read an article after his passing. Too often, human rights workers, at least in the Indian context, turn into shrill caricatures like Roy, or become cocktail circuit chatterati. India owes a debt to the Kumars of the world who devote their life to such unglamorous, difficult, and critically important work.
I would be interested in hearing about the experience Ensaaf and Kumar had with the law enforcement and police authorities, especially since his work was directed towards their organizational callousness in the 80s.
It is important to uphold human rights – but on both sides. The ones violated by separatist Sikh militants and as well as the police. This is an interesting contrast to the post earlier of the Sri Lankan crack down of the Tigers.
It is important to uphold human rights – but on both sides. The ones violated by separatist Sikh militants and as well as the police.
I agree in principle with that. Earlier I have written posts criticizing Sikh militancy in various forms (and I have taken considerable heat from more conservative Sikhs for my views), but I did not think it was appropriate here.
Incidentally, I’m not 100% sure that Kumar didn’t devote some of his energy to talking to families terrorized by militants — he did a lot in his career (something like 10 books, all on human rights issues), and here I only described one small facet of his activities. (He was also in Bhopal after the Union Carbide disaster, and in Gujarat in 2002, for instance).
I do think the mass cremation issue is shocking enough by itself that it is worth sustained attention by Indian citizens, without reference to ‘balance’ (nothing the other side did was ever on this scale). Kumar’s goal was to get the government to acknowledge that it happened, show some accountability, and put in place measures to make sure it never happens again. As it is, the government almost succeeded in covering this up entirely; as I understand it, until about 1995 no one knew about it.
This is one sided, biased. Where are the people speaking up for the human rights of those violated by brutal separatist Sikh militants? Victory becomes the defeat of the good is something those violent Sikh militants too should have learned. They were wrong to terrorize Punjab and create a separate country for themselves. Punjab was already wrongly split once on religious lines to create Pakistan for the Muslims. What remains of Punjab belongs to all Punjabis of all religions. If you are going to talk about human rights violations you should speak for both sides, for those victims of Sikh militants too. In other countries separatists are traitors, and huge bloody civil wars like the American Civil War is waged to defeat traitorous separatists and preserve the union. I have sympathy for people whose human rights were violated, but when people write only of the human rights violations of the police and not as well of the militants, it is not balanced.
Okay I just saw your post, after my second post.
“I do think the mass cremation issue is shocking enough by itself that it is worth sustained attention by Indian citizens, without reference to ‘balance’ (nothing the other side did was ever on this scale).”
If you did this post because Kumar died, and you are saying he did write about victims of Sikh militants, then both sides of what Kumar looked into should have been shared in my view. Scale should not be the only criteria. What happened to victims on both sides is important enough.
Out of curiosity, what about the reverse? Kumar was a non-Sikh, Hindu, but were there any Sikhs looking to the human rights violations of non-Sikhs?
“Out of curiosity, what about the reverse? Kumar was a non-Sikh, Hindu, but were there any Sikhs looking to the human rights violations of non-Sikhs?”
I hope that you realize that the primary organization that is accused of human rights violation in the case of Punjab is Punjab Police, which is overwhelmingly Sikh. It’s not appropriate to reduce this to Sikh vs. Non-Sikh issue.
Sameer, in other countries you are talking about, justice is served, which is not going to be the case in India for coming years and it has never been. Look at Bombay riots, demo of babri Masjid, Gujrat riots. We can talk about reverse and the human right violations of non-sikhs, but this post was to celebrate what Kumar did for Sikhs or if you wanna call the ppl who suffered. The problem with India is that minorities are always going to suffer and if you have money no one can touch u…..This is the sad truth and lot’s of ppl can’t live with this…
Well, that works only if people are instinctually honest and intelligent to apply abstract thinking in this sort of situation.
[Anecdote]
One of the founders of “Ensaf†(sp?) was invited to speak at a university – somewhere in the mountains. The occasion was to celebrate India/Indian culture etc. It was a university sponsored event and the organizers were mostly American (white) staff members so they were pretty clueless about Ensaf’s agenda.
On the day India was to be celebrated the invited speaker excoriated India and its majority Hindu population – the speech was riddled with the lies, speaker also accused “Indians†of committing “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing†of Sikhs – the vocabulary was topical as news cycles were talking about some other genocide somewhere else (Algeria if I remember it correctly). The speaker even called out KPS Gill and Punjab Police Force but never did she inform the audience that Gill is a Sikh and Punjab Police is a predominantly Sikh force. It would have raised interesting questions about how Sikh policemen were cleansing Sikhs terrorists from Punjab.
Of course the speech ended with a request for donations.
[End Anecdote]
A lot of innocent people were killed quite a few of them were non Sikhs; moreover majority of killing was done by Sikhs (Policemen, CRPF, Army or Khalistani thugs), it is important to remember this fact. Interestingly it is Sikhs who have hijacked all the ‘grief’ that originated from Punjab problem.
Let us not equate acts committed by those whom many acknowledge to be terrorists, and the government. Even if Kumar had never tried to “expose” the crimes of the terrorists, that does not reduce the credibility or importance of his work one bit. There is an overwhelming majority of people “speaking of human rights violations committed by the Sikh terrorists”, and very few trying to bring accountability to the state’s unconscionable actions.
Not just the minorities dude. Everyone without money will suffer because they’re too busy bickering over irrelevant identity politics to bother lifting each other up.
remember the 1984 delhi massacre?
truly classy thought. reduces the man to an arbitrary religious identity and creating a false equivalence between a majority and a minority.
like sulabh up above.
Isn’t Kumar Marathi?
Tuze paya dukhat ahet ka? Karan tu diwasbhar mazya manat dhawat hotis.
I am sorry to see the senseless bickering begin here, but I guess that is an aspect of our culture at this point in time.
How does a relatively open and democratic country improve itself? By self-criticism, by remembering its mistakes and by providing justice to the greatest number of its citizens. Other countries are also part of this process – in the US with its long independent history, there are so many examples of struggle, injustice, self-correction and (some) change.
This the journey india has embarked on. Its a long journey, but one of the key parts of it are honest activists and reporters, especially concerning violence and state failure. That is the only way to build a “mahan bharat”, one that confronts its own weaknesses and gradually eliminates them.
Lets not get bogged down with silly arguments about bad XYZ extremists. Of course, those guys are scum. But how should “our” state respond to them? By locking up, beating and killing random young people?
I hate the arrogance of the ignorant activists, the arundhati roys, the silly people who spend time arguing that hinduism is inherently fascist, that only minorities in india live in fear, that violence is always the response to any provocation and so on. But that should not diminish our respect for those who have respectfully yet forcefully challenged the state and in doing so strengthened our nation.
Yep.
For e.g. in 1987, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987_Punjab_killings , ‘They singled out Hindu passengers and dragged them off and shot them to death.’ Only 34 were killed, clearly, less than 2000.
then again in 1991, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Punjab_killings, ‘The Sikh militants killed at least 80 bus passengers travelling in two trains near the city of Ludhiana in in India.’ and again ‘In the same year in December 1991 the militants further killed 49 passengers, mostly Hindu, travelling on train from Ludhiana to Ferozepur.’. Ony 129 were killed, clearly, less than 2000.
What are you suggesting? The insurgents clearly lost. The state won, through brutal means yes, but it won. It treated the populace well after its victory. Many important and good people from the victorious side, Beant Singh (assassinated by a suicide bomber, along with 17 other bystanders) comes to mind immediately, lost their lives.
Are these victorious ones, all bad?
Counter Terrorism in the Indian Punjab: Assessing the ‘Cat’ System
http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/publication/faultlines/volume18/Article2.htm
The issue of balance brought up earlier on in the comments is important. But in this case, you have to remember, that not one person was convicted for the 1984 riots in New Delhi, in which more than 2000 Sikhs lost their lives, utterly senselessly, and in broad daylight, under the noses of politicians and the police. oh wait, they actually participated. My family lived through it.
So, please.
Some real classy comments for this post.
Some naive people like to mix fact with opinion. Amardeep is celebrating the life of a good man and tards come in with their commentary.
The exact same thing seems to have occurred on Amardeep’s other thread re: Tanveer Ahmad – but with a lot more apathy and cynicism.
The neo Jagdish Tytlers are out in force here, tongues hanging out, hands down their pants.
Thanks for a great post Amardeep, ignore the creeps.
And that will always be a dark spot on the Indian state. I know it wont make you feel better, but my sincere apologies to you and your family. Some of my family lived through those times in Punjab as well. Some are Hindu, some are Sikh and all did what they could for the mother land.
This post however, talks about a specific person with a specific role to play, in such laudatory terms that it almost excludes everyone else who went through those times – in particular, those who acted the best way they could against Khalistani terrorists – from any kind of understanding.
If you were an officer of the Punjab police, what would you have done? Please try to go through the link I posted earlier from SATP. It gives a rough course that the Khalistani terrorist movement took over a period of ~10 years or so. Look at 1992 and 93, when the families of police officers were murdered.. I should know, I have relatives who retired honorably from Punjab Police. Also look at conviction rates even under draconian laws like what was then known as TADA. (Hint, they are near 0).
This post paints Ram Narayan as a hero and everyone else in that struggle, particularly those on the side of the state as villains. What you and Amardeep dont understand is, the ‘villains’ (mostly Sikh themselves) brought peace to Punjab and neighboring states. Because of those villains, Hindus dont have to carefully look at Sikhs they travel with to make sure that they dont leave behind some baggage. (Bombs, you see). Because of those villains, the Golden temple is once again a house of worship and people are not being tortured or murdered in there. Because of those villains, Sikhs can live confidently and without any harassment in mixed localities all over India again.
What – in concrete terms – did Ram Narayan achieve?
Wow! Just wow! The post does nothing of the sort. People like Shardul are comfortable for the state to have the legitimacy of established government with the freedom to behave like terrorists. And Ram Narayan is just a pesky irritant that prevent this kind of wilful abuse of power.
Everybody is a statist till it is their kin being disappeared. But I guess majoritarians feel comfortable that the day when the machinery of the state is turned against them, without recourse to due process, will never come.
What are you suggesting? The insurgents clearly lost. The state won, through brutal means yes, but it won. It treated the populace well after its victory. Many important and good people from the victorious side, Beant Singh (assassinated by a suicide bomber, along with 17 other bystanders) comes to mind immediately, lost their lives.
Just to be clear, my use of that quotation was a way of honoring Ram Narayan Kumar, not a way of making a political statement. As I’ve said (a thousand times) I am dead-set against any Sikh secessionist movement in Punjab. (Ram Narayan Kumar was too, incidentally. In “Terror in Punjab” he talks about how it would lead to another Partition, with awful human consequences.)
In cases of traumatic civil conflict like this was, it is essential to have a full accounting of what happened after the fact. Where the state committed excesses, those should be noted and recorded. The crimes and atrocities of militants should not be overlooked either, though it’s unfair in my view to ask one person to be responsible for all of it. It takes a national effort and cooperation from all involved parties. It cannot be a politicized or partisan project, or it will fail. The idea has to be: the Truth needs to be reliably known and accepted by all sides if healing is to begin.
A place where the “Truth and Reconciliation Committee” model has worked in recent years is Rwanda. There, despite a ghastly genocide (which was, by several orders of magnitude, more deadly than what happened in Punjab or Delhi in the 1980s), the Hutus and Tutsis are starting to grudgingly find a way to live together and work together. And the economy is beginning to grow. The reason is mainly that the president there has ordered that every village where massacres occurred in 1994 have public accountability trials. In most cases, the criminals are not punished beyond a slap on the wrist. But these public events have at least gotten people to accept a shared version of that history, which is the first stage in moving on.
@@Raj
What else does the quote “Victory becomes the defeat of the good” imply?
I will gladly exchange some state terror for some law and order and prefer that to a bunch of religion crazed zealots with AKs, IEDs and RPGs. That does not make me a statist, it just makes me a regular human being. You parrot these European liberal dogma without realizing the context in which they were forged – too much state power. Compare that with India where for all this talk of ‘statism’, the state cant obtain a convictions, even if it uses a TADA like law. If anything, the problem is too little state power.
We are Indians, we live day to day anyway. There may come such a day when we are denied ‘due process’, till that time, let us enjoy the peace created by the ‘statist villains’.
It is truly commendable of you to sacrifice (what you think are) other people’s liberty, security, and basic rights, even to life, for your enjoyment.
(This is apart from the question of what killing 2000+ prisoners without any chance for any of them to prove innocence or defend themselves does to advance security. I suppose their families and friends must accept it as noble sacrifices in the name of Shardul’s peace too.)
This is truly absurd logic. The state cannot kill, maim, and incarcerate its citizens to compensate for its own inadequacies. By the same reasoning, the Sikh separatist populace, which had too little power to have its rights established, should have been entitled to adopt any means necessary to stand up for itself.
@@Amardeep
Thanks for clearing that up. Perhaps this should have been up in the original post itself?
There arent any economic problems in Punjab or north India and people are living peacefully together. So to that extent, ‘truth and reconciliation’ is a solution in search of a problem. As for a shared understanding of what happened, shouldnt that be initiated within the Sikh community and not from Delhi? After all, at least some major players were Sikh? As an aside, among the Indians I know, there arent any who would hesitate in apologizing for what happened in 1984 or at the very least, agreeing that what happened was really bad. I dont mean to put you on the spot, but are there many Sikhs who would say Bhindranwale was utterly wrong in the way he set himself up in the Golden temple?
Secondly, the problem of dealing with insurgencies is still alive in India, though it has died down or reduced to a problem of dealing with random terror acts in Punjab. How to deal with insurgencies when the ‘monopoly on violence’ that the state must have to deliver justice and peace, is no longer existent? How does one deal with crazy illiterate religious zealots with AKs, IEDs and RPGs that challenge the state where it has very little presence?
In the long term, increase welfare activities, improve general well being of the population, yes. But in the meanwhile, these lunatics will rape, maim and kill half of your population! Beyond a certain point, this violence will simply become self perpetuating..
If the problem goes away, the state will apologize and help everyone to move on. But it hasnt.. The government cant say ‘terribly sorry about this’ in Punjab and apply the same methods in Kashmir or Chattisgarh or Jharkhand.
In the medium term, this is the only method that any state has. That is, judiciously kill the insurgents and their supporters.
I challenge you or anyone else to present another theoretical framework or any empirical cases where the state could prevail over crazy illiterate religious nuts with AKs, IEDs and RPGs without ‘disappearances’ and ‘encounters’.
@@Raj
Commendable or not, its simply human,nothing more, nothing less.
The proof of the pudding lies in eating. The Khalistani insurgency is perhaps the only one where the state and civil society prevailed so thoroughly and completely over insurgents. There is peace today in Punjab, you cant deny it. As for the ‘2000+’ people, civil society should provide them with some closure (which perhaps the NHRC judgement and compensation did to an extent), but a witch hunt of Punjab Police officers is not the answer.
Please suggest a better solution. Indian government is paying its bureaucrats and its army tons of money trying to come up with solutions. They are people like you and me, I am sure they will listen.
If you cant, grow up. Human society has not evolved to a point where all interactions end up in a morally satisfying solution.
Bullshit. As long as there is a pliant and complacent populace, that even goads the government to murder its people irrespective of their innocence, as you do, what incentive does the government have to respect fundamental rights?
I have no idea what this is supposed to mean. Rape, murder, and relieving oneself on the street are too. What’s your point? Should we celebrate these too?
@@Raj
How do you know? Have you dealt with the Sarkar? In any case, can you come up with a better (or any) solution?
Funny you would bring up ‘relieving oneself on the street’. If you are miles away from a rest room and you have to go, it is human to relive yourself on the street. You would do it too.. I guarantee it. Without any context, sure its disgusting. But what would you do if you are miles away from a rest room?
What would you do if you have to deal with a bunch of crazy illiterate religious nuts wielding AKs, RPGs and IEDs?
@all,
I am reliably told that this is a ‘near true’ story of how an extra-judicial execution took place in Kashmir. Please read through, put yourself in the boots of the young army officer and try to figure out what you would do in his situation. http://majorgauravarya.blogspot.com/
rape and murder some muslim women in shopian? do i get full credit?
I only gave you that previous answer, because YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!! YOU’RE GODDAMNED RIGHT I’D ORDER THE CODE RED!!!!
@@Rahul
For being a troll? Yes.
What is the difference between a patriot and a troll? What is the difference in the murders they are allowed to support? Do tell.
Oh, and by the way, I am reliably told that that rape and murder is a true story, not near and not quoted.
@@Rahul
I am glad you have such certitude in your life. There is nothing I can tell you, since you already know it all. Presumably, you also know how to fight insurgencies. Why dont you put your knowledge to good use and help the USA win the insurgency in Iraq or Afghanistan?
Do you or do you not support the rape and murder of these women? Why or why not? Or do you just not give a damn because “shit happens” and it’s not people you know or care about?
@@Rahul
In general, judicious use of ‘disappearances/encounters’ has been shown to bring an end to insurgent movements in India. Whether the targets are women or men is immaterial as long as they are involved in the insurgency. This is not hypothetical, as women are a fairly important part of the maoist and also the north eastern terrorist groups.
Having said that, its far from clear that these women were ‘encountered’ by security forces. The report you linked to simply blames JK state police (not the central forces) for bungling up the investigation, not for the act. They simply dont have any evidence to pin this on the central agencies. In Kashmir, anything can happen, it wont be a surprise at all if some HM or LeT mujaheddin are responsible for the crime.
Note that I am not saying that encounters and disapperances are the standard of police operations that we should aspire to, but simply that there is no other option that is as effective given the current condition of the local state police forces in India. This was even more true in the 80s and 90s.
How do you know that it is or isn’t judicious? And that these targets of rape/murder/disappearance/mutilation are actually involved in insurgency?
Alright, the dots from “screwing up investigation” to “coverup” are connected here.
According to sources, Justice (retd) Muzzafar Jan, in his report, alleged that Superintendent of Police Javed Iqbal, Deputy SP and Station House Office had “tried to destroy evidence†in the case. The commission, silent on the cause of death though, said “…the way police tried to destroy evidence, finger of suspicion falls on them.â€
So, despite an investigative commission’s report, your inclination is to believe that the separatists are the culprits. I am curious – under what circumstances would you consider that the state can do wrong?
Also, would you consider it a crime if the rape and murder of two women was committed by these orgs? If so, why is it not a crime when state actors do the same thing?
Amardeep,
Interesting post, but a few points of difference. I feel you err in your terminology. You write:
It would not be ‘conservative’ Sikhs criticizing you (or ‘liberal’ Sikhs supporting you), but rather ‘nationalist’ Sikhs.
And with regards to a Truth Commission, it would be a great idea. In fact, perhaps unknown to you, Ram Narayan Kumar was instrumental in creating such a civil commission and you can see the Indian Government’s reaction to it. You can read more here.