Kashmir: Two Statements

We condemn the reported reinstatement of four police officers accused of tampering evidence in the Shopian rapes and murders case. Right from the very beginning the police tried to dismiss the rapes and murders of the two women, Neelofar and Asiya, whose badly bruised bodies were found in Rambiara nallah in Shopian in the morning of May 30, 2009, as cases of drowning, refused to lodge a first information report and made all possible efforts to tamper with evidence in the case. The policemen were indicted by both the Jan Commission of Inquiry, which held that the tampering of evidence was a deliberate pre-meditated act, and the State High Court which maintained that “either they had committed the crime or they knew who had done it”.

The policemen have been reinstated on the basis of the CBI recommendations even as the case is still sub-judice in the Jammu and Kashmir State High Court, which refused to treat the CBI report as the gospel truth. The voluminous CBI report has even failed to be a convincing document. The Court that had earlier ordered their arrest and later released them on bail after a month has still not given the four policemen a clean chit. In light of such facts, the reinstatement of the cops amounts to mockery of the justice system. It goes against the very spirit of justice and fairplay. It also highlights the impunity enjoyed by the men in uniform and the absolute patronage given to them by the political authority at the helm of affairs in the State as well as the Centre. Instead of ensuring an impartial enquiry into the whole episode and satisfying the aspirations of the people who peacefully campaigned for justice, the govern-ment has allowed the security agencies, including the CBI, to nail the whistle-blowers.

It was due to the deliberate acts of omission and commission by the four police officers that crucial evidence which could have led to nailing the accused persons was destroyed and lost. The four cops should at the very least be charged with criminal negligence, grave dereliction of duty and destruction of evidence.

We are also shocked at the ill-conceived timing of this decision to reinstate the four police officers. Justice in Shopian has been very close to the hearts of Kashmiris for the last one year. At a time when the Valley has been so incensed with the state beginning with the Maachil encounter and the firings on the very young who were protesting against the miltarised state under which they have spent all their growing years, such acts of omission are likely to cause more provocation, hurt and desperation among the already alienated and angered population.

Independent Women’s Initiative for Justice, Saheli, Warisha Farasat, advocate, Lena Ganesh, Kalpana Mehta, Navsharan Singh, Narjees Nawab, advocate, Urvashi Butalia, Pratiksha Baxi, Shad Naved, Anand Chakravarti, Ashley Tellis

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WE strongly condemn the recent spate of state perpetrated violence in Kashmir and its persistent framing as a law and order problem. Surely the unrelenting struggles of millions of Kashmiris must force us to question the reprehensible language of externally induced disturbance—indeed, if the most ordinary people are pelting stones on the streets of Kashmir, certainly they would have something very urgent on their minds. But over the years, the Indian state has consciously and deliberately chosen to turn a deaf ear to their voices. Instead, it has declared a state of permanent emergency by the imposition of the AFSPA since 1990.

This has claimed the lives of almost a hundred people in the last three months alone; 60,000 have been killed in the two decades since its imposition. Long spells of curfew and severe restrictions on movement have become the order of the day; and the presence of the military has acquired an uncanny normalcy on the State’s landscape. Overall, Kashmir is suspended in a perpetual state of exception, with every moment being marked by fear and uncertainty.

Ironically for a nation that claims to be the world’s largest democracy, this everyday violence and unfreedom is a result of precisely that claim, albeit articulated by the Kashmiris. Indeed, it is their unquestionably democratic demand for self-determination through the slogans of Azadi that is forcing Kashmiris to pay with their lives. We condemn the state’s utter insensitivity towards this, as evidenced by its persistent refusal to repeal the AFSPA, and its despicable inability to understand the issue from the eyes of a Kashmiri. Unfortunately, this fanatical claim to national pride is orchestrated by the mainstream media as well, which seems to have entered into a holy nexus with the state.

Given the urgency of the situation and the ever increasing brutality of the state, we enlist the support of progressive members of civil society in underlining the necessity of building pressure to demand demilitarisation of Kashmir beginning with immediate repeal of the AFSPA. We especially reach out to the women of Kashmir who are often subject to the most brutal and quiet forms of this violence. We hope that they are left to breathe freely, animate a democratic realisation which is free from brutal state obstruction and is unhinged from nationalist chauvinism.

Saheli, AIPWA, Narjees Nawab, advocate, Warisha Farasat, advocate, Dr Uma Chakravarti, Dr Lena Ganesh. Dr Navsharan Singh, Dr Ajitha Rao, Pyoli Swatija