STRUCTURES OF VIOLENCE

45
| Structures of Violence
investigation as it is possible to now connect a specic
force to a specic encounter and determine whether it
was a staged encounter or not.
There is no independent mechanism to ascertain the
presence of various armed forces units who have been
deployed in this region over the last 25 years. But, the
RTI information from the police appears to provide some
ofcial conrmation about the presence of various
armed forces at a particular time in a specic location.
The data shows that the number of encounters was very
high from 1990 to 1995. There was a signicant drop in
the number of encounters from 1996 to 1998. The
number of encounters picked up again between 1999 to
2002. From 2003, the number of encounters has
declined once again.
The total number of encounters from 1990 to 2014 is
238. According to the police admission 27 civilians have
been killed. Based on other information available, no
one has investigated the culpability of the armed forces
or indeed prosecuted individuals or units for these
crimes of admitted civilian killings.
Signicantly, in these 238 encounters police claim that
225 militants were killed. Out of this, 45 continue to be
unidentied. In cases researched in this report there are
examples where civilians were killed by the army in fake
encounters and then shown to be militants. For example,
Testimony no.49 provides information on two cases of
fake encounter in Yatipora, Pattan. Both are brothers of
the witness Ali Mohammad Yatoo. First, his brother
Ghulam Ahmad Yatoo was killed on 1 September 1995
and a FIR was led by the 15 RR of Hamray camp stating
that the victim was a militant, who died in ring and
recovery of weapons and ammunition were made. This
is the same year in which as per the RTI response above
15 RR of Hamray was involved in 11 encounters.
Presumably this “encounter” was one of them. The
family of the victim state that he was interrogated and
then killed. Most interestingly, the family received exgratia
relief and SRO-43 benets from the government
thereby proving that even as per government inquiries
he was not involved in militancy related activities. But,
the FIR led by Major Jagjit of 15 RR never led to any
prosecution for the fake encounter. The second case is
of 22 May 1994, a year earlier, is similar. This time
Ghulam Mohammad was taken away by the Gharwal
Ries of the army on 22 May 1994, killed, and
categorized as a militant. The family states that he was
used as a human shield and killed. Once again, in that
year Gharwal Ries was involved in 7 encounters and
this fake encounter is presumably one of them. The
family received ex-gratia relief and SRO-43 benets
thereby once again proving that the government itself
did not consider the victim to have been involved in
militancy related activities.
Most importantly, the question of 45 unidentied
militants reveals that the phenomenon of unmarked
graves and unidentied bodies is prevalent in the Pattan
area. There are documented cases, including by the
Jammu and Kashmir State Human Rights Commission,
where bodies have been buried as unidentied militants
by the forces that later were found to be in fact civilians.
Investigations would need to be carried out on these 45
unidentied “militants” to ascertain their identity, which in
turn could lead to investigations on the commission of
serious crimes.
The summarized information relating to encounters in
Pattan is presented as a graph and table below: