NEW DELHI: Slamming the recent UN report on alleged
human rights violations in Jammu & Kashmir as “motivated”, General
Bipin Rawat on Wednesday said Indian Army’s record in this regard was beyond reproach. “I don’t need to speak about the human rights record of the Indian Army. It is well known to all, to the people of Kashmir, and to the international community,” Gen Rawat said.
“I think we should not get too concerned about this report (released earlier this month by the UN Human Rights Council). Some of these reports are motivated. The human rights record of the Indian Army is absolutely above board,” he said. The report detailed alleged human rights violations in J&K and
POK. The foreign ministry had termed the report “fallacious, tendentious and motivated” as far as J&K was concerned.
The Army said only 66 out of the 1,736 allegations levelled against the force for violating human rights in J&K and the northeast between 1994 and 2017 were found true, in which around 150 soldiers were punished and compensation awarded in 49 cases.
In J&K, the force said only 31 of the 1,022 allegations that were investigated between 1994 and May 2018 were found to be true. “Around 70 personnel have been punished in them. Another 20-30 cases are being investigated,” said an officer.
But it’s also true that the government, taking recourse to the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, has rejected sanction to the J&K government for prosecution of military personnel in 47 of the 50 cases submitted since 2001. In the other three cases decision is still pending.