SOUTH ASIA - House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats

2219lice courtyard in Punjab, apparently to exact a confession from them that they possessedan assault rifle. Allegedly, police pulled their legs open 180 degrees, appliedgasoline to their genitals, and beat them badly. Devinder Singh died as result ofhis injuries. A police subinspector subsequently was charged with Devinder Singh’smurder.An army major was arrested in 1998 for the 1996 killing of human rights monitorJalil Andrabi. The case still was being heard at year’s end, but human rights workersalleged that the central Government and Jammu and Kashmir state both wereattempting to subvert the judicial process by withholding evidence, and that therewere no court actions during the year. There were no developments in the 1996 killingof human rights monitor Parag Kumar Das, who allegedly was killed by a militantwho previously had surrendered and was supported by the Government (seeSection 4).Killings and abductions of suspected militants and other persons byprogovernment countermilitants continued to be a significant problem in Jammuand Kashmir. Countermilitants are former separatist militants who have surrenderedto government forces, but who have retained their weapons and paramilitaryorganization. Government agencies fund, exchange intelligence with, and direct operationsof countermilitants as part of the counterinsurgency effort.Countermilitants are known to search persons at roadblocks (see Section 2.d.) andguard extensive areas of the Kashmir Valley from attacks by militants. The Government,through its sponsoring and condoning of extrajudicial countermilitant activities,is responsible for killings, abductions, and other abuses committed by thesemilitant groups. Perhaps as many as 3,000 individuals continue to operate inJammu and Kashmir, particularly in the countryside, outside major towns. TheHizbul Mujahideen, a Kashmiri militant group, stated in June 1998 thatprogovernment countermilitants had killed 350 of its members. According to Pakistaninewspaper accounts, Indian security forces had killed 438 Pakistani membersof insurgent groups in Jammu and Kashmir during 1999. Of this number, 200 weremembers of the LashkareTayyaba, 123 were members of the Al-Badr Mujahideen,69 were members of the Harkat-Ul-Mujahideenand, and 46 were members of theHizbul Mujahideen. However, these numbers have not been confirmed, and only includethe four largest militant groups in the state. The Government stated that securityforces had killed 1,520 militants in the state during the year, compared with1,082 in 1999. The Government recruited countermilitants into the Special OperationsGroup of the Jammu and Kashmir police and into the Border Security Force.Militant groups in Jammu and Kashmir increasingly targeted members of the securityforces and civilians during the year. In January militants allegedly killed twosoldiers in Jammu and Kashmir; the soldiers retaliated with arson. On February28, militants killed five Hindu truck drivers on the SrinagarJammu Highway (seeSection 5). According to HRW, in February militants allegedly shot and killed threepolice officers in the busy market area of Lal Chowk, Srinagar; security forces retaliatedby beating nearby civilians with sticks and rifle butts and by burning cars inSrinagar (see Section 1.c.). On March 20, militants massacred 35 Sikh inhabitantsof Chatisinghpura town, Anantnag district, Jammu and Kashmir, in what appearedto be a well-planned attack. The militants, dressed in military uniforms, separatedunarmed male members of the Sikh families from women and children, gathered themen in a school complex a short distance from their homes, and summarily executedthem. It was the first known attack on the Sikh minority in Jammu and Kashmirby militants, and it appeared intended to drive other members of that communityfrom the Muslim-majority state (see Section 5).On March 24, militants invaded a Muslim family’s home and killed five familymembers in Kot Budhan village, Udhampur district. The militants stormed into thehouse in the early morning, beat family members, and then shot them at pointblankrange; three other family members, including a child, were wounded in theattack. According to HRW, on April 17, gunmen entered the homes of several Hindufamilies in Kot Dara village, near Rajouri. They fired on the unarmed civilians, killingsix persons and injuring six others (see Section 5). On August 1 and 2, militantslaunched 8 separate and coordinated attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, killing approximately99 persons. In one of the attacks, at Pahalgam, armed militants descendedon a camp of Hindu religious pilgrims making the annual pilgrimage toAmarnat, in the northern part of the state. The militants fired automatic weaponsat the pilgrims’ tents, the unarmed civilians in the camp, their local porters andguides, and nearby army personnel, killing 32 persons, primarily unarmed civilians.Similar attacks throughout the night of August 1 to 2 appeared to have been intendedto halt the nascent effort of the Hizbul Mujahideen militant group and theGovernment to observe a ceasefire and initiate a dialog. An army-headed commissioninvestigated the August 1 Phalagam massacre and reported on October 31, thatVerDate 11-MAY-2000 13:46 Sep 20, 2001 Jkt 071555 PO 00000 Frm 00063 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6621 F:\WORK\COUNTRYR\S71555\71555.035 HINTREL1 PsN: HINTREL1