NEW DELHI: Former CJI and National Human Rights Commission chief K G Balakrishnan on Tuesday described honour killings as “cold blooded murder”, adding that more than a new law, awareness was needed in society against such inhuman acts. The statement comes at a time when the National Commission for Women and prominent women rights activists have been demanding a separate legislation to define honour crimes.
Balakrishnan was speaking at a seminar organised by the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) on honour killings. Underlining the deep-rooted problem, NCW chairperson Girija Vyas said the commission was dealing with 50 cases that had poured in the last two months.
NEW DELHI — Global rights monitor Human Rights Watch urged the Indian government Monday to crack down on village councils and local politicians linked to a spate of recent “honour” killings.
The New York-based watchdog said the authorities should not only prosecute those responsible but also strengthen existing laws to prevent religion and caste-based violence.
Most “honour killings” in India target young couples who marry outside their caste, and are carried out by relatives in an attempt to protect the family’s reputation.
The murders are often sanctioned by village councils and prosecutions are rare because, critics say, local police and politicians choose to turn a blind eye.
“Officials who fail to condemn village council edicts that end in murder are effectively endorsing murder,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director for Human Rights Watch.
The latest murky cycle of violence in Indian-held Kashmir began late Monday in the Gangbugh neighborhood of Srinagar. Residents say paramilitary officers chased Muzaffar Ahmad Bhat, 17, and two 11th grade friends, possibly fired shots in their direction — the details were not clear. The frightened youths jumped into a drainage canal to get away.
Bhat, who could swim, failed to return home and the community mounted a search. At dawn, his body was found floating in the canal.
As word spread Tuesday morning of the drowning, angry residents gathered to protest. Within 24 hours, they say, two more people had been killed by security forces.
The Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir has been on a knife’s edge since June 11, when a 17-year old boy in Srinagar died after being hit in the head by a tear gas canister fired at close range by security forces. Between that death and Bhat’s drowning, thirteen more people have died at the hands of security forces, each sparking more protests and then more deaths.
The streets of Srinagar, the state’s summer capital, were largely deserted Wednesday after the Indian army was called in to enforce a curfew and quell the demonstrations. But the deaths underscore the volatile mix of armed force and public anger that continues to plague a region long divided between India and Pakistan.
As distraught residents gathered Tuesday to protest Bhat’s death, Fayaz Ahmad Wani, 28, was saying goodbye to his wife and two infant daughters as he headed off to his government horticulture job.
NEW DELHI: The Indian government is using counter-terrorism measures to arbitrarily detain large numbers of Muslims, says a new report slamming India’s record of protecting minority rights.
No action is being taken against officials who sanction such detentions, even when they are proved illegal, say the authors of the report.
The South Asia chapter of the 2010 State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous People, brought out by the London-based Minority Rights Group (MRG) International, was released in the capital on Thursday. Farah Mihlar, author of the South Asia chapter, said that the perpetrators of acts of violence against religious minorities in India are allowed to act with impunity and noted the poor rate of arrest and conviction, especially of political leaders orchestrating violence.
New Delhi: Amid growing instances of honour killings and demands by khap panchayats to amend the Hindu Marriage Act for banning same sub-caste marriage, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) chief KG Balakrishnan today said none should be allowed to enforce “self-created” laws.
“Contrary to the general moral view of the society, nobody shall be allowed to enforce their own self-created law to achieve their narrow-minded societal values,” he said.
Justice Balakrishnan was addressing a training programme on the ‘Rule of Law’ organised by Vishwa Yuvak Kendra here.
The former chief justice of India, however, did not mention the khap or caste panchayats or the controversy surrounding their demand.
“Who am I to interfere with what goes on between the United States and Pakistan? That’s a matter for these two countries to consider,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh responded in April 2010. He had been asked, in a Washington press conference, whether India objected to Pakistan and the U.S. reaching a deal on civil nuclear cooperation. The same logic should now apply to reports that China is planning to supply two additional safeguarded nuclear reactors to Pakistan. For those who still look at the region through ‘hyphenated’ lenses, what is good for Pakistan must necessarily be bad for India. But the reality is not so Manichean.
NARAYAN LAKSHMAN
India is among the least peaceful of major countries in the world and is getting even less peaceful year on year.
This was the major finding of the Global Peace Index (GPI) Report an annual publication by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), a global think tank focused on researching the relationship between economics, business and peace.
According to the 2010 report, which considered a range of peace-related variables among 149 countries, India’s rank was 128, six ranks lower than its 2009 position.
SRINAGAR: In a move to soothe tempers over Army methods that bedevilled his visit to Kashmir, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday said security forces have been “strictly instructed” to respect human rights and pledged to remove deficiencies in implementation of the instructions.
“Sometimes innocent civilians suffer, but whenever such incidents happen it becomes necessary to act against those responsible. I’m aware of some complaints related to human rights,” said the PM, who arrived in Srinagar to review the security situation and inspect development projects. He was addressing a convocation at Srinagar’s Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology.
The PM’s pledge comes in the backdrop of recent alleged fake encounter killings in North Kashmir and growing concerns that such incidents could fritter away gains in counter-insurgency operations that have seen militant violence drop to an all-time low since 1989.