HRW: Indian military court fails victims in Kashmir killings

The U. S.-based rights watchdog - Human Rights Watch (HRW)denounced a military court verdict that exonerated five Indian army officers involved in the killing of five civilians 14 years ago. The closure of Pathribal "fake gunfight" in Indian-controlled Kashmir case by Indian army's court of inquiry demonstrates the military's continuing impunity for serious abuses, it said. "Five villagers were abducted and murdered, yet the army has been allowed to absolve itself," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "The Armed Forces Special Powers Act should be repealed so that soldiers who commit serious crimes against civilians face trial in civilian courts and can no longer be protected from prosecution." India army Friday said it could not found enough evidence to press charges against its men in Pathribal case. The Indian army troopers including officers were accused of killing five Kashmiri civilians in 2000 in a gunfight in Pathribal village in Anantnag district, about 85 km south of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir. The army had claimed the victims were foreign militants responsible for the killing of 35 members of a minority Sikh community. The killings triggered massive public outcry with victim families. Indian police later on exhumed the bodies, which turned out to be those of missing local residents in DNA testing. India's premier investigating agency- CBI probed the matter and in 2006 indicted five Indian army troopers for the killings. CBI stated it had sufficient evidence to show that the killings were extrajudicial executions and "cold-blooded murder." It filed charges against the eight army officers in local courts in Indian- controlled Kashmir. "The Indian government should urgently act on the recommendations of several commissions and repeal the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which provides effective immunity for military personnel implicated in human rights violations," a statement issued by HRW. New Delhi has imposed the controversial AFSPA in the region in 1990. The law gives extraordinary powers to its troops such as shooting a person on mere suspicion in the region. Indian troops and police have consistently been accused of grave human rights violations in the region in the last two decades. India has rejected all requests made by the local government of Indian-controlled Kashmir over the last more than two decades for sanction to prosecute its troopers for their alleged involvement in rights abuses, activists said. The army had opposed the trial of its accused troopers in Pathribal case in a civilian court. In 2012, India's Supreme Court asked Indian army authorities to decide whether its personnel accused in Pathribal killings be tried by court-martial proceedings or by regular criminal courts. "The Supreme Court gave the army a test as to whether it could hold its personnel accountable," Ganguly said. "The army has now failed this test, showing yet again its inability to fairly prosecute abuses by its personnel." Indian-controlled Kashmir is considered as one of the highest militarized regions in the world. Officially India does not reveal the actual number of its troops deployed in Kashmir. Rights groups say that India has deployed more than 700,000 troopers and paramilitary troopers in the region to fight militants. A guerrilla war is also going on between militants and the Indian army troops stationed in the region since 1989. Kashmir, the Himalayan region divided between India and Pakistan is claimed by both in full. Since their Independence from British, the two countries have fought three wars, two exclusively over Kashmir..