The interlocutors today made a candid admission that a new cycle of arrests has been started in Kashmir by the state government despite centre’s recommendations for release of the prisoners. After five months of their appointment by the centre, the interlocutors favoured a thorough probe into “all acts of violence and alleged human rights violations” and punishment to the guilty.
“We succeeded in getting some relief from the centre on the release of youth but a new wave of arrests has been started here unfortunately,” academician, Radha Kumar said, addressing a press conference along with fellow interlocutor, Dilip Padgaonkar, at Sher-e-Kashmir International Convocation Centre (SKICC) here. She was responding to a query about the interlocutors’ achievements since their appointment by the centre.
In response to a separate question, that caught Kumar off-guard, on pending disappearance cases in the Supreme Court, Padgaonkar said: “We believe that all acts of violence and alleged human rights violations, no matter who has committed them, must be thoroughly probed and swiftly judged. And punishment shall be meted out to the guilty.”
“There have been demands that it might be important at one point to go into the entire range of violence and counter violence and to attend to the victims. We agree that there are certain high profile cases that need immediate attention and like you, we are going to be hopefully patient. But we are monitoring the things on a regular basis in New Delhi as well as here.”
The trio of interlocutors including M M Ansari besides Kumar and Padgaonkar was appointed by the centre last year in response to the summer unrest that left 112 dead and many more injured or jailed. The interlocutors are going to prepare a list of recommendations for the centre to help stabilise situation in Kashmir.
So far the trio has paid several visits independently to Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh regions, meeting around 450 delegations. This was their sixth visit to the state which was focused on meeting women from all three regions.
On Friday, the interlocutors have had an “interactive workshop” with the mothers, wives and sisters of those killed during the unrest.
“The women emphasized on an end to the terrible loss of life in future,” they said.
A two day workshop was also held since yesterday with around 50 representatives of women “representing a wide spectrum of political opinion” from Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh regions.
“They (women) urged the centre and the state governments to take immediate measures to guarantee the physical, psychological, social, economic and cultural security of women in the state, especially in Kashmir which has borne the brunt of violence over the past two decades,” they said.
Giving the excerpts of the meetings, Kumar said that there was a strong need for a special women task force to address the problems of female victims of violence “including women, half widows, orphans and it shall also include the relief for parents of disappeared.” The interlocutors appreciated the army’s initiative of helping in locating the disappeared.
“An urgent need is for trauma counseling centers and we urge that these be speedily set up. Many women underlined the need for residential removal of security installations from residential areas and redeployment of troops out of there,” they said.
The interlocutors recommended the state government to consider implementing the state laws for protection of juveniles.
“Women drew our attention to the continuing arrests of youth and indiscriminate use of Public Safety Act (PSA) against them. The laws for protection of juveniles in India do not exist here and the legislative assembly could consider whether similar legislation is required in the state along with amendments to restrict the use of Public Safety Act (PSA),” they said.
Thorough discussions, they said, were held with women separately over the problems of migrant women and the “political contours of a solution.”
“A valuable suggestion was that women can provide a bridge for Kashmiri Pandits to reconcile with their co-citizens in the Valley,” they said. “Women expressed divergent aspirations on the political contours of a solution. It was, however, heartening to see the flexibility displayed by women in finding common ground. It can provide basis for a permanent resolution.”
“The women were unanimous in their demands that no settlement can be reached without the participation of women,” they said.
‘Recommendations implemented on ground’ Listing their recommendations which have been implemented so far, Kumar said: “One of the more important actions taken on recommendations was easing of travel and trade exchanges across the line of control (LoC). It was good to see the government announcing opening of a counter on LoC for granting permits to all residents of Pakistan Administered Kashmir wishing to come here.
This is the unilateral step taken by Indian government but we hope Pakistan will reciprocate it in times to come.
“On our recommendation, the state has opened offices over here for issuing passport quickly to the people. At least 20,000 out of the 45000 backlog have been dealt with and I hope this speed will be maintained.
“About 16 bunkers have been removed and we are hopeful that the process would be speeded up. We do understand that there is very active review of security installations going on at the moment.
“Our recommendation for peaceful means of crowd control has seen an active training program being launched in the state. Some of our recommendations on relief for widows, orphans and targeted vocational type scholarships have gone into Rangarajan committee report.
“A number of delegations in Jammu and Ladakh have demands regarding, what are essentially, governance and developmental issues. Many of those have been passed on to the relevant task forces.
“Trade across LoC has steadily gone up over the years which could be a very important development. Our intensive talk is going on how to ease and improve the facility for trade across LoC.”
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