A WikiLeaks cable reveals that Kashmiris were in a state of anguish and grief over extra-judicial killings during 2007. The Indian army labeled the victims as Pakistanis after killing them.
In a recently leaked cable, the website said that a Kashmiri carpenter, who was killed in 2007, was labeled as a member of Lashkar-e-Toiba and a resident of Multan.
The cable (ID 95785) issued on 2/8/2007 issued from the US embassy in New Delhi stated that Srinagar was once again gripped with protests on February 7th, as police officials announced that they had dug up five unmarked graves in an ongoing investigation of custodial killings.
Our interlocutors say Prime Minister Singh is influencing the investigations as a confidence building measure with Islamabad by urging security forces and the judiciary to address longstanding accusations that Indian police and security officials have tortured, killed, and disappeared thousands of Kashmiri civilians in the course of the 17 year long insurgency. While staged encounters and extrajudicial killings are by no means uncommon in India, the case has also prompted clashes in the J&K General Assembly between ruling coalition leaders Chief Minister Gulam Nabi Azad, of the Congress Party, and former Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Said’s daughter, Mehbooba, of the People’s Democratic Party.
Widespread protests began in Srinagar on January 28th after the GOI began an inquiry into the custodial death of Abdur Rahman Padder, a Kashmiri carpenter. Press reports say the carpenter was arrested on December 8th and killed in a fake encounter staged by the Special Operations Group of the J&K Police. The police officers then announced to the press that he was a Lashkar-i-Toiba terrorist from Multan, Pakistan, claiming they had recovered an AK-47 rifle, three magazines, 36 rounds of ammunition, and a grenade from his body.
Police investigators later uncovered the killing because an officer involved in the incident gave the victim’s cell phone to a “surrendered” former terrorist as a reward for information. Investigators say the police were motivated by a desire for the recognition and rewards doled out to officers who arrest or kill a suspected terrorist and that the weapons were likely planted on the victim. The Police have now widened the investigation, digging up four more unmarked graves of terrorist suspects killed in similar encounters to see if their DNA matches those of other Kashmiri civilians who recently went missing. Press reports say the Senior Superintendent of Police, Ganderbal Hans Raj — who has a particularly brutal eputation for encounter killings — as well as his Deputy and the two junior officers directly implicated in the case are being held in police custody during the pending investigation.
Ravi Nair explained further that the Prime Minister had launched a policy to end the “scorched earth” method of putting down the insurgency in Kashmir, and that this was a key confidence building measure India was putting in place in talks with Pakistan. He said there has been a reexamination of the way India deals withadvantage over China, internal
army corruption, distrust of Pakistan and a desire to keep hold of advantageous territory that thousands of Indian soldiers have died protecting.
The cable stated that every time India and Pakistan came “very close” to an agreement on the Siachen issue, the prime minister of the day would be forced to back out by the Indian defence establishment, the Congress Party hardline and opposition leaders.
When the 2006 India-Pakistan Foreign Secretary talks set up a joint mechanism for discussing counter-terrorism issues ended with rumours that Pakistan had made a concession on Siachen, observers had said that the prime minister will be significantly constrained in any part of his agenda with Pakistan in the coming months, especially in the face of significant opposition from within his own party and an emboldened BJP that viewed the joint mechanism as an opportunity to portray the Congress Party as soft on terrorism.
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