This is a report on the August 1998 mass killing at Sailan, Surankote, Poonch. It is based on extensive conversations with family members and eye witnesses, interviews with local residents and political activists, retired officials and lawyers involved in the case, and the perusal of police, court and other official documents.‍

Topics: locating the Sailan massacre, the qatl-e-aam of 3rd to 4th August 1998, legal struggles, living with the massacre

Terms: ahistorical nationalist narratives, State Human Rights Commission (SHRC), Special Police Officers (SPOs), SPO Zakir Hussain, Indian Army Major Gaurav, SPO Mohammad Younis, SPO Mohammad Rafiq Gujjar, SPO Maqsood Ahmed Khan, SPO Mohammad Akbar, Indian Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI), excessive use of force, mass killings, extrajudicial killings, violation of habeus corpus, violation of right to life, arbitrary killing of minors, legal impunity, “counter-insurgency” operations, 1998 Sailan Massacre, violence against women, silencing of victims.

This is a communication of the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances and two UN Special Rapporteurs (on freedom of opinion and human rights defenders) to the Government of India concerning the India's refusing entry to the Secretary-General of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) as a result of her work on enforced disappearances in Kashmir.

Topics: attacks on human rights defenders, enforced disappearances, human rights defenders, unmarked graves, mass graves, impunity, lack of accountability
Terms: Mary Aileen Diez Bacalso, Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), refusal of entry, lack of access by international human rights organizations

This report describes numerous informal and formal "irregular" armed groups that to whom the Indian state has "outsourced" criminality and violence. These groups are often untrained, have little clarity chain of command and are responsible for numerous killings and atrocities against civilians.

Topics: disorganised and informal armed networks in Kashmir

Terms: Village Defence Committees (VDCs), Special Police Officers (SPOs), Ikhwan, irregular armed forces, violations of the right to life, communalism, impunity, failure to punish perpetrators

This report by the Centre for Policy Analysis (an Indian think tank) is an investigation by senior civil society activists into the progress of the justice process regarding the mass torture and 1991 gang rape incidents in Kunan-Poshpura, Kashmir. The report finds that the victims, 22 years later, continue to suffer trauma, ostracization/stigma, lack of medical care, inadequate reparations, official neglect and even high unemployment.

Topics: Background, CPA team’s experience and findings, recommendations, mental health issues

Terms: Rajputana Rifles, 1991 Kunan-Poshpura mass rape and mass torture, lack of redress, lack of reparations, denial of access to justice, sexual violence, violence against women, impunity, lack of accountability, post traumatic stress, psychological impacts, gang rape. 

This report, prepared over two years using information gleaned mostly from official State documents, portrays the state of impunity prevalent in Indian-Adminsitered Jammu and Kashmir (IAJK). This report also seeks to turn the focus on identities of alleged perpetrators of crime and atrocity. This stems from the understanding that despite a culture of systemic impunity that exonerates perpetrators, it is individuals who commit violations, and they must first and foremost bear responsibility for their acts. By naming names the report seeks to remove the veil of anonymity and secrecy that has sustained impunity. Cases presented in this report reveal that there is an overwhelming reluctance to genuinely investigate or prosecute the armed forces for human rights violations.  Out of 214 cases a list emerges of 500 individual perpetrators, which include 235 army personnel, 123 paramilitary personnel, 111 Jammu and Kashmir Police personnel and 31 Government backed militants/associates. The designations of some of these alleged perpetrators points to a deep institutional involvement of the Indian State in the crimes. Among the alleged perpetrators are two Major Generals and three Brigadiers of the Indian Army, besides nine Colonels, three Lieutenant Colonels, 78 Majors and 25 Captains. Add to this, 37 senior officials of the federal Paramilitary forces, a recently retired Director General of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, as well as a serving Inspector General. The cases discussed in this report go contrary to the Indian State narrative of human rights violations as mere ―aberrations. Crimes in Jammu and Kashmir have not been committed despite the Indian State but because of it.

Topics: cases/information in the report, profiles of cases as indictments, profiles of other cases, list of alleged perpetrators, recommendations

Terms: legalized impunity, failure of accountability, State responsiblity, culture of impunity, juridical impunity, failure to investigate, failure to prosecute, denial of access to justice, denial of remedy, role of judiciary, cover ups, enforced disapperances, involuntary disapperances, unmarked graves, mass graves, January 1990 Gow Kadal Massacre, extrajudicial killings, fake encounters, cordon and search operations, excessive use of force, custodial torture, custodial rape, violation of habeas corpus, arbitrary detention, Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act 1990 (AFSPA), Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Criminal Procedure Code 1989 (CrPC), Government-sponsored militants, Ikhwan, Public Safety Act 1978 (PSA), Ranbir Penal Code 1989 (RPC), Rashtriya Rifles (RR), Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, Special Police Officer (SPO), State Human Rights Commission (SHRC),Village Defence Committees (VDCs)