No expectations from Machil probe: Experts

Srinagar, January 26, 2014 (PPI-OT): In occupied Kashmir, after the Indian Army’s decision to close the Pathribal fake encounter case, experts have said that no justice will be delivered to people in the Machil fake encounter case.

The Army had ordered court martial proceedings in December, last year, against its two officers and four troopers for their involvement in the 2010 Machil fake encounter. However, after the Army’s decision over Pathribal fake encounter, experts say that justice cannot be expected, when one is the judge of his own cause.

“No one can be the judge of his own cause,” said Dr Sheikh Showkat Hussain, noted political commentator and Professor of Law at the Kashmir University. He said that in absence of delivery of justice, the only solution to human rights abuses committed in occupied Kashmir was recourse to the International Tribunal on the pattern of Bosnia and Rwanda.

Coordinator of Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), Khurram Parvez said that Indian courts were in same way culpable like the Indian army was culpable in the occupied territory. “Indian courts have not done anything to provide justice and they have always agreed with the army version,” he said.

Khurram Parvez said that looking at the past records of court-martials ordered by Indian Army against its men in Kashmir regarding the human rights violations, they didn’t expect any justice would be delivered by army in Machil fake encounter case. “Now International Tribunal would be a genuine demand by the people of Kashmir as it is important for the International remedy that first it should be proved that the local mechanism had failed,” he stated.

The Chairperson of Kashmir Centre for Social and Developmental Studies (KCSDS), Professor Hameeda Nayeem, said that in such cases, no Army man would be prosecuted as it would be their own death. “Cases like Pathribal or Machil are serious crimes. If they would establish the crime that means it would be the real questioning of army in Kashmir, it would be interrogation of the special powers given to army. Therefore they would never do it,” she said.

She added that the army’s decision of ordering court-martial against its men, be it Machil fake encounter or any other case, was just a ritual. “Army would never prosecute its own men, so it is not possible to get justice in cases like Machil or Pathribal fake encounters,” she added.

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