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Kashmir calls for new probe into alleged mass rape
A Kashmiri woman cries during a protest in Shopian (AFP/File, Tauseef Mustafa)
SRINAGAR, India A government commission in Indian Kashmir has called for a fresh probe into the alleged mass rapes in two remote villages by Indian army personnel twenty years ago, a report said Saturday.
Kashmir's State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has recommended that the government set up a special team to reinvestigate the alleged mass gang rape of at least 31 women by Indian army personnel in 1991.
The women from the villages of Kunan and Poshpora in northern Kupwara district had claimed that they had been gang raped by soldiers during the night of February 23-24 in 1991, at the peak of the insurgency that erupted in 1989.
The incident sparked mass protests across Kashmir, despite the Indian army's repeated denial of its involvement.
A high-level team from the Press Council of India visited Kashmir in June that year to investigate the case.
The team concluded that the charges against the army were a "well-concocted bundle of fabricated lies" and "a massive hoax orchestrated by militant groups and their sympathisers and mentors in Kashmir and abroad".
The call from the SHRC follows Friday's announcement by Kashmir's chief minister that tough emergency laws imposed in Indian Kashmir in 1990 that allow security forces to act with near-impunity would be partially withdrawn.
The SHRC has recently been recording statements from the victims.
"In the course of hearing the case, statements of 18 women were recorded and during which they testified that they were subjected to the atrocity," the SHRC report said.
It has advised the government that a senior superintendent of police should head the fresh team to probe the case.
The SHRC has also asked the state government to prosecute the then director of the prosecution, who had sought to close the case on the grounds that the perpetrators were "untraceable".
In addition, the SHRC has recommended that government compensation be paid to each of the victims.
Indian Kashmir was once one of the most dangerous places on Earth as militant groups waged a deadly campaign of bombings and killings to protest against rule from New Delhi.
India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over the Muslim-majority Kashmir, which each country holds in part but claims in full.
The region is in the grip of a waning insurgency that erupted in 1989 and has so far left more than 47,000 people dead, according to an official count.
AFP: Kashmir calls for new probe into alleged mass rape
A Kashmiri woman cries during a protest in Shopian (AFP/File, Tauseef Mustafa)
SRINAGAR, India A government commission in Indian Kashmir has called for a fresh probe into the alleged mass rapes in two remote villages by Indian army personnel twenty years ago, a report said Saturday.
Kashmir's State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has recommended that the government set up a special team to reinvestigate the alleged mass gang rape of at least 31 women by Indian army personnel in 1991.
The women from the villages of Kunan and Poshpora in northern Kupwara district had claimed that they had been gang raped by soldiers during the night of February 23-24 in 1991, at the peak of the insurgency that erupted in 1989.
The incident sparked mass protests across Kashmir, despite the Indian army's repeated denial of its involvement.
A high-level team from the Press Council of India visited Kashmir in June that year to investigate the case.
The team concluded that the charges against the army were a "well-concocted bundle of fabricated lies" and "a massive hoax orchestrated by militant groups and their sympathisers and mentors in Kashmir and abroad".
The call from the SHRC follows Friday's announcement by Kashmir's chief minister that tough emergency laws imposed in Indian Kashmir in 1990 that allow security forces to act with near-impunity would be partially withdrawn.
The SHRC has recently been recording statements from the victims.
"In the course of hearing the case, statements of 18 women were recorded and during which they testified that they were subjected to the atrocity," the SHRC report said.
It has advised the government that a senior superintendent of police should head the fresh team to probe the case.
The SHRC has also asked the state government to prosecute the then director of the prosecution, who had sought to close the case on the grounds that the perpetrators were "untraceable".
In addition, the SHRC has recommended that government compensation be paid to each of the victims.
Indian Kashmir was once one of the most dangerous places on Earth as militant groups waged a deadly campaign of bombings and killings to protest against rule from New Delhi.
India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over the Muslim-majority Kashmir, which each country holds in part but claims in full.
The region is in the grip of a waning insurgency that erupted in 1989 and has so far left more than 47,000 people dead, according to an official count.
AFP: Kashmir calls for new probe into alleged mass rape
