Srinagar: The Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) comprising of Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik on Tuesday said that for the people of Kashmir the Indian judiciary is no different from its Executive and legislative authority while dealing with them.
In a statement, the JRL said there is ‘no expectation, hope of justice for the daily killings of civilians, young or old men or women, children or lactating mothers, by its armed forces who enjoy the cover of legal impunity under laws such as the AFSPA and hence are free from accountability and prosecution.’
ALSO READ: Shopian Civilian Murders: Supreme Court stays FIR against Army Major
The JRL said eight lakh forces stationed in Kashmir, are used as a vehicle of maintaining forcible control over the people and territory of Kashmir.
“As a consequence of the unbridled powers bestowed upon them by the laws of the state, more than one lakh Kashmiri civilians have been killed with bullets and pellets either during massacres such as in Hawal, Gaw Kadal, Sopore, Kupwara and Handwara, in enforced disappearances during civil protests and agitation or during cordon and search operations or in targeted killings,” they said in a statement.
ALSO READ: Shopian Civilian Murders: Judicial intervention for impunity continues, says JKCCS
“None of the perpetrators have ever been punished although many times ‘inquiries’ are set up as an immediate remedy to bring the situation under control and assuage people’s anger,” they said.
They added that once in a while when the target killing of civilians by the forces is too obvious as in the case of Shopian, where three young boys were shot at in the head and brutally killed and the administration was forced to file an FIR.
“All hell is let loose, there is a hue and cry about how dare the forces are indicted,” they said in the statement.
ALSO READ: Shopian Civilian Murders: Continuous deaths and endless mourning
They added that the biased Indian media jumped to defend the ‘victims’, in this case the forces.
“In the din and cacophony that ensues, the basic question of the fundamental right to life of those Kashmiri civilians who were killed in cold blood and justice for their murder, is drowned,” the statement added.
“The judiciary immediately comes to the rescue of the perpetrators and even the attempt to some kind of investigation in the killing is stayed. In such a situation to expect any kind of justice for the young boys killed with impunity is futile,” they said.
