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National Remedies
Several reforms have addressed human rights concerns. In 1993 Parliament adopted the Protection of Human Rights Act providing for a National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). The Commission has no authority to investigate the military and paramilitary, but can request the government to examine complaints. The NHRC did request a report from the government on the shooting of unarmed demonstrators in Bijbehara in October 1993. A magisterial inquiry recommended prosecution of 12 BSF members for the killings. Officials are conducting another investigation into reprisal killings by the BSF in Sopore in January 1993. Kashmir's Minister of State for Home Affairs, Rajesh Pilot has directed that relatives be informed within 24 hours of an arrest.
The judiciary also became more engaged in 1994.
The Supreme Court directed active investigation and prosecution of custodial deaths and other cases of police abuse and negligence. In one case, murder charges were brought against Punjab policemen for a faked encounter killing. In another case, a High Court judge in July recommended murder charges for 11 Punjab policemen in a faked encounter killing and compensation to the victim's family.
In September the Supreme Court strongly criticized the Punjab police, including the Director General K.P.S. Gill, for inaction following the abduction by police in 1991 of 7 members of a family, none of whom has been seen since. In October the Supreme Court ordered the prosecution of 58 police officers accused in the 1991 murders of 10 Sikh youths in Uttar Pradesh. The NHRC is investigating 25 cases of suspected faked encounter killings.9
In July a Ministry of Defense spokesman announced in Srinagar that a court-martial had sentenced two army enlisted men to 12 years' rigorous imprisonment for raping a Kashmiri woman 1 month earlier. The announcement broke with the Government's previous policy of not announcing the disciplinary sentences handed down to security forces personnel in Kashmir.10
Hoping to win back disaffected Muslim voters, the government allowed objectionable provisions of The Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act: (TADA) to lapse in May 1995. An amended criminal bill severely restricts preventive detention and revokes authority to use coerced confessions.
