89 Army rights violators punished since '90

JAMMU: The Army has punished 89 of its personnel, including 34 officers, who were found guilty of human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir ever since militancy struck the state.

In 33 cases of human rights violation established by the Army's courts of inquiry, 89 personnel have been punished since 1990, defence sources told the media. The figures suggest that anyone who has been found guilty of abuse of rights has not been spared, they said, adding, there is no truth in allegations that the courts have been slow in handling these cases.

According to statistics, 34 officers, five junior commissioned officers and 50 personnel of other ranks have been punished for various rights violation-related offences.

The sources said although there were 1460 allegations of human rights violations registered against the armed forces in the state since the eruption of militancy, only 33 were found to be true.

"Forces with vested interests, especially in the valley, have embarked on a vicious campaign to malign the image of the security forces, evident in the high number of false allegations of human rights violations," a source said.

"Earlier, these vested interests had raised the bandwagon of custodial killings but now they are using the allegations of rapes and molestation of women. It is easy to gather a crowd by levelling these allegations as emotions run high," the source said.