97% cases against Army in J&K fake

NEW DELHI: Investigations have found that 97% of cases related to human rights violations against the Army in J&K were fake, a spokesman of the armed forces said here on Wednesday.

In what could kick the bottom of the campaign against the Army by separatists and rights activists, Brigadier General Staff (BGS), Northern Command, Sanjay Verma told reporters: “1,514 FIRs have been registered against Army personnel for alleged human rights violations in the last 20 years of militancy. As many as 1,473 complaints — nearly 97% of the cases — were found false and baseless.”

The Brigadier admitted that 35 cases (2.3% of total cases) were found to be correct. He said that 104 Armymen, including 48 officers, have been punished for human rights violations in J&K.

“Our accountability norms are very strong. Our investigation and punishment in cases relating to alleged human rights violations is very fast,” the Brigadier said, underscoring that there was no room for mistakes.

Army officials maintained that they were following certain strict edicts, including presence of police representatives during operations and immediate handing over of detainees to police, while conducting counter-terrorism operations under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (Afspa).

The Brigadier said that the Army ensures that a police representative is present as part of the operational team though an exception could be made in remote areas where the strength of the police force may not be sufficient to be deployed in more than one operation going on simultaneously.

All operations are conducted as joint operations with the police, he said, adding that recoveries made, detainees and bodies of those killed are immediately handed over to the local police. “No unilateral arrests or searches are made. All actions are based on hard actionable intelligence," Army officials said, adding that the Army has discontinued crowd control measures and has left the task to the state police.