Rights forum calls for probe into Kashmir killings

NEW YORK, AUG. 23. The Human Rights Watch has denounced the series of attacks over the weekend on Hindu residents of Kashmir which left 10 civilians dead and nine seriously injured. The international monitoring organisation called for a judicial inquiry into the attacks and urged all parties to the conflict in the disputed territory to respect the rights of civilians under international humanitarian law.

``The recent attacks on Hindus in Kashmir are a reminder of the continued failure by all parties to protect civilian non- combants,'' Ms. Sidney Jones, Executive Director of the Human Rights Watch's Asia division. ``Just as we have condemned abuses against civilians at the hands of the Indian security forces, we oppose violations of international humanitarian law by militant groups.'' The Geneva Conventions, she noted, prohibit acts of violence against civilians who are not taking an active part in hostilities in internal armed conflicts.

On Saturday night, militants armed with assault rifles entered two houses at Ind village, 10 km north of Gool town in Udhampur district. According to press reports, they opened fire on the occupants, killing three elderly men and a teenage boy, and critically injuring two. Two nights earlier, another group of gunmen had raided several Hindu homes at Kot Dara village, 10 km from Rajouri town and fired upon the residents. Six persons were killed in that attack, and six injured. In a separate incident on Sunday, a gunmen shot at a member of the Kashmir Valley's dwindling Hindu minority at a long-distance dialing kiosk that he operated in Qazi Gund, near Anantnag town. The victim, Prithvi Nath, was hospitalised with injuries suffered in the attack.

The slayings this weekend follow the mass killings of Hindus in different parts of the State earlier this month. On August 1 and 2, gunmen killed nearly 90 persons in separate attacks on Hindu pilgrims at Pahalgam in the Kashmir Valley; prdominantly Hindu migrant labourers at a brick-klin factory in Qazi Gund and in a neighbouring village; and local Hindus in Doda, immediately south of the Valley. Although the massacres were condemned by most major separatist political parties and armed groups active in Kashmir, they are believed to have been carried out by militant factions opposed to peace talks then under way between Hizb-ul- Mujahideen, Kashmir's largest armed guerilla group, and the Indian Government.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks this past weekend. Although in each case local Hindu residents were selectively trageted, local observers and media have speculated that there may have been different motives for the different incidents. Some of the persons killed in the attack on homes in Kot Dara were reported to have been members of the local Village Difense Committee (VDC), an institution established by the State Government in the hill districts.

The VDCs, ostensibly set up to guarantee the safety of all of the region's inhabitants, have recruited their members almost exclusively from local Hindu communities and are seen by militants as adjuncts to the Indian security forces.

The attempted killing in Qazi Gund came two days after the State Cabinet approved a controversial proposal for the resettlement of displaced Hindus, most of whom had fled their homes in the Kashmir Valley in 1990, into three new ``safe'' zones in the Valley.

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Section  : International
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