2012-10-02 16:07:11

India: SC seeks official response to extrajudicial killings


October 2, 2012: The vexed issue of extra judicial killings of ‘innocent’ civilians has come haunting the Indian government otherwise battling internal dissidence in terms of insurgency and Maoist violence in several states.

The Supreme Court on October 1 ordered the federal government and the state government of Manipur, in North Eastern India, to respond to allegations that 1,528 people, including women and children, have been killed by security forces and state commandoes since 1978.

“It’s a frightening situation that should shock the conscience of the entire nation,” Colin Gonsalves, lawyer for the petitioner, told ucannews.com. The 410-page petition has been filed on behalf of two Manipur-based organizations, Extra Judicial Execution Victim Families Association and Human Rights Alert.

The petition seeks halt to such indiscriminate killings and setting up of a special investigation team comprising of honest police officers to probe the killings in the state. Manipur bordering Myanmar has overwhelming presence of men in camouflages. There is at least security force personnel for every 20 civilians in Manipur, according to Asian Human Rights Commission. The embattled federal government, faced with corruption charges and growing political opposition to reforms initiatives, wants to go cautiously on a sensitive and emotive issue like this.

“We have heard about the Supreme Court directive and will respond to the petition in time,” said a union Home Ministry official on the condition of anonymity. The insurgency-hit Manipur government too said they will also “respond” to the allegations.

“We are seized of the matter,” a Manipur government official told ucannews.com. He, however, added that a “myriad of complex issues” ought to be understood in terms of providing adequate security to citizens, protecting the national integrity and honor in a sensitive border state and help governance and developments reach people.

Northeastern states and Jammu and Kashmir in northernmost India have been reeling under a controversial law called the Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA), which gives unbridled and sweeping powers to the state and federal security forces. But this legislation, initially drafted in 1958 go along with Disturbed Areas Act, is sought to be justified by the armed forces and the government on the plea that it is required to fight the secession movements.

The Defense Ministry had earlier this year opposed diluting the provisions of the law saying it is their "vital tool for operations." The primary complain against the Act is that under its provisions even a junior officer is granted the right to shoot and to kill individuals on mere suspicion in order to "maintain the public order."








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