annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights

INDIA HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2005 Jammu and Kashmir
group and were on a suicide mission upon
the BSF camp. However, one of the
deceased, Fayaz Ahmad Peer was found
out to be a medical assistant of Sub
District Hospital, Naw Hamam-Sopore.
Fayaz, a resident of Machipora-Sopore
was reportedly heading towards the Block
Medical Office, Sopore to collect his
salary when the security forces opened fire
on him. 38
The security forces also reportedly
used civilians as human shield and to clear
mines with bare hands. On 6 February
2004, Mohammad Yaqoob, Mohammad
Aslam, Farooq Ahmed, Sakhi Mohammad
and Ghulam Jeelani- all residents of
Bandipore town in Baramullah district
who were taken as porter were allegedly
used as “human shields” by the Jammu &
Kashmir Rifles. On 8 February 2004,
thousands of people demonstrated against
their killings as “human shields”. 39 In the
evening of 12 December 2004, Abdul
Qadir Waza, a resident of Wussan-Pattan
in Baramulla district was critically
wounded after the Rashtriya Rifles
personnel allegedly forced him to check an
Improvised Explosives Devise (IED)
planted by the AOGs. 40
The vigilante group, known as
Ikhwanis, were also responsible for
extrajudicial executions. One Abdul
Rashid Bhat, a resident of Narbal area,
Srinagar was allegedly picked up by a joint
team of SOG and some Ikhwanis on the
night of 16 February 2004 and later killed
in custody. 41 On 17 February 2004, people
of Narbal area in Srinagar district held
90
demonstrations against the killing of Bhat
by the Ikhwanis. 42
The Jammu and Kashmir State Police
have also been responsible for arbitrary
killings.
At 8 am 12 February 2004, Immam
Mohammad Hafiz Pir, Akhtar Hussain and
Pervez Ahamad residents of village Chapri
under Doda district had reportedly gone to
village graveyard for offering prayers. A
team of Special Task Force came to the
graveyard and fired upon them without
any reason. While the local Imam died on
spot, the other two persons received minor
bullet injuries. 43
On 12 February 2004, a police team
headed by Inspector Vijay Paul Singh,
SHO Pacca Danga police station in Jammu
district picked up an elderly transporter of
the area, Manohar Lal Gandotra. He was
taken to the Police Station and was
allegedly tortured to death. The
postmortem was allegedly done without
informing the family. The doctors, who
conducted the autopsy, were also allegedly
pressurized for providing favourable
report. The body of the deceased
reportedly bore injury marks on the head
and lower abdomen. The police forcibly
took signatures of the relatives of the
victim before handing over the dead body
to them for last rites. 44
At about 2 am on the intervening night
of 10 and 11 May 2004, some policemen
from Utrosoo police station reportedly
barged into the house of Abdul Rashid
Khan at Brari Angan in Anantnag district
posing as Lashkar cadres and demanded