SRINAGAR: In a surprise twist the state government Thursday appointed a one-man judicial commission to probe the killing of over 120 civilians during 2010 summer uprising. Retired Justice M L Koul who is also probing the Gagrin Shopian killings at the hands of CRPF will head the Commission. The state in 2010 had acknowledged only 17 out of 120 killings and appointed the Justice Bashirudin Commission to probe those killings. But the effort ended up in a fiasco with Justice Bashirudin resigning in protest following the government’s cold shouldering of the report, which had indicted armed forces.
The fresh decision, which the state cabinet took during a meeting on Thursday with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in chair, seem heavily focused on the upcoming assembly elections.
A CNS report claimed that Justice M L Koul did not know about the decision. “I have not received any note from the government so far in this regard so I cant comment on the issue,” the agency quoted Justice Koul as saying in response.
The State government had ordered the CoI into the killings of only17 youth out of about 120 civilians killed by police and paramilitary forces during pro-freedom protests in June 2010 after the Machil fake encounter.
The CoI headed by Justice Syed Bashirudin was entrusted the job to complete the probe in three-months up to October 2010. The CoI, with Justice Y P Nargotra as member, had recorded statement of witnesses and even accused the government forces of dereliction of duty.
Justice Bashir-u-Din that time had maintained that his report was based on statements of witnesses, circumstantial and scientific evidences and had indicted police and paramilitary CRPF personnel in those cases and recommended measures to prevent such incidents in future, but the report could not be made public due to shelving of the CoI.
Even as the decision appears too political to evoke any public applaud, the question remains whether the government has now acknowledged the all the 120 boys fell to reckless policing or the new probe too will be limited to only 17 deaths .
Follow this link to join our WhatsApp group: Join Now
Be Part of Quality Journalism |
Quality journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce and despite all the hardships we still do it. Our reporters and editors are working overtime in Kashmir and beyond to cover what you care about, break big stories, and expose injustices that can change lives. Today more people are reading Kashmir Observer than ever, but only a handful are paying while advertising revenues are falling fast. |
ACT NOW |
MONTHLY | Rs 100 | |
YEARLY | Rs 1000 | |
LIFETIME | Rs 10000 | |