Barely 3% allegations against forces in Kashmir genuine: Indian Army

[Ayush]

Less than three percent of allegations of rights abuses against Indian armed forces in Kashmir are genuine, head of Indian Army’s Northern Command, Lieutenant-General Sanjiv Chachra has said.

Lt-Gen Chachra told The Indian Express that in almost all the genuine cases, ‘exemplary’ punishments ranging from dismissal from service without any service benefits to imprisonment was given to the forces and denied allegation of abuse against the nearly 700,000 armed forces deployed in the disputed state.

“Of the 1,524 allegations of human rights violations levelled during the past, 42 involving 124 army personnel were found true following investigation into each of them by an independent and autonomous body,” The Indian Express quoted him as saying.

Indian forces have been battling a separatist insurgency in Kashmir region from the last 24 years with independent estimates by rights groups suggesting that nearly 70,000 people have died in the region’s recent troubled past.

More than 10,000 are believed to have become victims of enforced disappearances in the state.

Most of the abuses have been blamed on government forces who have got ‘a license to kill’ without any accountability inKashmir.

“It is inexplicable why the army is reluctant to share substantive information when it comes to how they conduct inquiries and courts-martial into allegations of human rights violations,” said Shashikumar Velath, Amnesty International’s programs director for India told Reuters.

“The fact that they have in effect deemed 97 percent of the complaints they received as “false” – without disclosing details of the inquiries – seems to reflect a culture of impunity rather than an absence of wrongdoing by the army,” he said.

Barely 3% allegations against forces in Kashmir genuine: Indian Army | idrw.org

 

[anant_s]

Indian forces have been battling a separatist insurgency

they are also battling the political apathy.
Armed forces are made to tackle an extra-ordinary situation where they have to contain militancy while ensuring there is little or no collateral damage and to top it all bear the charges of Human Rights volition.
At least in a war the rules of engagement aren't that restrictive.
No matter whose side one is on, you got to sympathize with an army battling such odds.