Govt Record on Kashmir Human Rights 'Locked Up' since Mid-2019

The records related to human rights violations in Indian-administered Kashmir have been "locked up" in a room since mid-2019 when the erstwhile State Human Rights Commission was dismantled, reports PTI.

The information came recently as a reply to an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was filed by activist Venkatesh Nayak.

UN experts often raise concerns over abuses in Kashmir, including arbitrary detention of journalists, alleged custodial killings, and a “broader pattern of systematic infringements of fundamental rights used against the local population”, says Human Rights Watch.

Over 350 people, including civilians, militants and Indian forces personnel, were killed in Kashmir, while 1,600 Kashmiris were arrested last year alone, a Kashmiri pro-freedom alliance said in January.

More than 470 people, including suspected separatists and Indian army troops, were killed in gunfights and “staged” clashes in Kashmir in 2020, according to a report.

Nayak sought to know the number of complaints pending before the commission as on October 31, 2019, when The Jammu and Kashmir Re-organisation Act, 2019 came into force.

The Indian rights body, which used to monitor the rights violation-related allegations, was wound up after Kashmir’s status was downgraded from a state to a Union Territory in August 2019.

The reorganisation bifurcated the erstwhile state into Union territories, which resulted in the winding up of autonomous bodies such as the State Human Rights Commission and the State Information Commission as central laws took over.

Responding to Nayak's application, the Jammu and Kashmir administration has said it has no information related to the records of the erstwhile panel.

In response to his first appeal, the Jammu and Kashmir administration said after the reorganisation of the erstwhile state into two Union territories, the Jammu and Kashmir Protection of Human Rights Act, 1997 (the State Act) was repealed.

With the repeal of the law, the General Administration Department wound up the Jammu and Kashmir State Human Rights Commission, it said.

"All the records of the commission were locked in a designated room at the office premises of the erstwhile Human Rights Commission, Old Assembly Complex, Srinagar. The employees of the erstwhile commission were deputed and adjusted in different other departments."

"The records of the commission were not formally handed over to the Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs and as such are not accessible to the department," the response said.

"As the records of the erstwhile State Human Rights Commission are not accessible or available to the public authority of the department nor are under the control of such authority and the information sought by the appellant is connected to such records, suffice it to say that the required information to this extent is not held by the public authority," it added.