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Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani's reported remarks that security forces fighting insurgency would be given immunity against charges of rights violation have evoked concerns in Jammu and Kashmir.
Rights abuse is a big issue in the state where more than 30,000 people have been killed since 1989.
Advani's proposal has worried the people of the state, especially in the valley, who say they will have nowhere to turn to if the security forces, already armed with sweeping powers, are granted freedom from legal scrutiny for their actions.
"On the one hand, we have militants and on the other, security forces without any accountability. Where are we heading to?" a professor asked.
The perturbed professor said Advani's proposal would completely negate the rights guaranteed to the people. "It is almost a military regime," he remarked.
Already, security forces in the state have sweeping powers to combat militancy. They do not need prior legal permission to conduct searches, seize property of suspected terrorists and even kill them. The act is valid in all but two districts of Leh and Kargil in Ladakh.
The people are scared that if general immunity is given to the security forces, more killings and bloodshed would take place, which in turn would spawn more militancy, as the state has experienced.
The security forces, too, are aware of the dangers inherent in the heavy-handed suppression of militancy.
Indian Army chief General S Padmanabhan recently described as a "disturbing trend" the reportedly large numbers of Kashmiri youths going to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir for arms training.
The security forces have, however, welcomed Advani's proposal.
"Some of my officers have been visiting courts for the past 10 years and nothing has come out of that. Either my soldiers fight militancy or they fight court cases," a senior officer told Indo-Asian News Service.
Officers of the Indian Army, paramilitary forces and police agree that legal immunity for the forces was required.
However observers said Advani's proposal, made at a function in Jalandhar on Sunday, was meant to reassure the security personnel that the government was standing by them.
More than 600 police personnel, each in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, are reportedly facing court cases and are being investigated for alleged violations of human rights during the anti-insurgency campaigns.
Indo-Asian News Service
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