THE ARMY VERDICT SUPPORTS THE DEMAND FOR
REVOCATION OF AFSPA AS JUSTIFIED
For the past many years the
people of north-estern states and
Jammu-Kashmir have been
demanding to repeal the Armed
Forces special powers act (AFSPA)
imposed on their states, alleging
that the army has been misusing
this act, playing havoc with the lives
of the civilians duly abusing all
norms of human-rights and
perpetrating atrocities against
them with impunity. Irome Sharmila
of Manipur has been conducting a
protracted agitation demanding the
revocation of AFSPA.
But the topbrass of army are
un-willing to revoke the AFSPA,
despite the J&K assembly made a
resolution for the repeal of the act.
The rulers at the centre have been
skillfully, avoiding the question in
the pretext of national defence or
countering terrorism in those
states, against the wishes the
peoples of those states.
The army personnel in those
states have been committing
atrocious crimes under the
protection AFSPA, killing many
youth of the state in the name of
encountering terrorists. People of
J&K have been protesting that most
of them are fake encounters and
the army personnel responsible for
such fake encounters shall be
punished severly.
In April 2010 the army claimed
they had killed three foreign
militants in Machil sector as they
were trying to infilter in to the valley.
But there was a public uproar
claiming that the army had the
civilians of the Baramulla area in
the name of foreign terrorirists, and
that it was a fake encounter and
demanded for the punishment of
army personnel responsible to it.
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This fake encounter triggered outrage across the valley and a six
month long protest agitation was
conducted by the people in which
123 people died.
After that the government
ordered a police probe. The police
inquiry established that the killed
Mohammad Shafi, Shehzad Ahmad
and Riaz Ahmad-were unemployed
youth of Nadihal, Baramulla and
were lured by the army informer
who promised the jobs. They were
made to come to Machil and were
handed over to the army personnel
for Rs.50,000 each; after which
they were killed. The army
personnel shot then at point-blank
range in order to earn cash
rewards meant for those who
eliminate militants. Thus it was a
ruthless project to claim the
monetary rewards set-aside to
eliminate militants.
On the revealation of this
culpability of army personnel, the
army chose to refer the issue to a
court of enquiry, which confirmed
the
murder-for-rewarded
conspiracy. Basing on the findings
of the of a court of enquiry, the
army initiated a court-material
proceedings in Dec.2013, and at
last it was forced to act on the
available irrefutable evidences and
had to pass its verdict awarding life
sentence to six of its personnel
found guilty in the fake encounter
case of Machil in 2010.
This is the first time the army
had ever punished its personnel for
fake encounter killings.
On the surface this verdict of
the army may appear to be an
action taken by the army top brass
to be dis-approving and not
tolerating such ‘rogue’ elements
and had delivered justice. But
anyone can easily infer that, the
army had left with no option than
punishing the guilty-since this is a
case of un-mistaken identity with
sufficient accurate evidences.
This is one instance among
the countless crimes where the
Army Court had awarded some
punishment to its own men in
Kashmir. The Culprits, even in this
case, could have escaped from the
punishment had there been no
exposure and powerful protest and
demand for justice from people. Yet
the Machil verdict is sought to be
used to spread a tendency of
thinking that it will be unreasonable
and unkind to blame the entire Army
and the security system for the
‘deviations’ and even crimes
committed by some “rogue” and
individual officials. But this kind of
underplaying and condoning
attitude toward the crimes will only
prevent us from going into the
roots of the problem.
One need not be complacent
with this army verdict that infuture
the Army personnel will behave
properly in those states the AFSPA
has been imposed and no fake
encounter killings or atrocities on
the civilians will be occurring.
In fact this army verdict
confirms the brute army-rule in
these states menacing the
existence of the very civilians and
this army verdict supports the long
pending demand of the people of
these states for revocation of
AFSPA is wholly justified.
In the wake of this Army
verdict, it will be wise and proper
for the powers that be to repeal the
AFSPA in north-eastern states and
Jammu and Kashmir and to realize
their true aspirations honorably.
Class Struggle