By Sreenivasan Jain
In 2013, a Supreme Court-appointed commission of inquiry found six encounters to be fake
Imphal:
In an overgrown field outside Manipur's capital, Basanta
Nameirakpam points to the spot where his son, Nobo, lies buried. The
27-year-old was killed in an encounter by a joint team of Manipur police
commandos and Assam Rifles in April, 2009. His cousin, Gobind, was also
shot dead that evening. Ordinarily the two men would have been
cremated, but they have been buried should the need arise to exhume
their bodies, as proof against their killers.
In March 2013, a
Supreme Court-appointed commission of inquiry found six encounters,
including Gobind and Nobo's, to be fake. Its report, authored by Justice
Santosh Hegde, noted that the incidents were "egregious examples of
AFSPA's (Armed Forces Special Powers Act) gross abuse" in the state. The
Court was acting on a petition filed in 2012 by the families of
encounter victims and a Manipur-based human rights group.
During
the inquiry, it was found that the security forces had acted on
unreliable intelligence, if any, and the weapons seized appeared to be
planted. There was no proof that Gobind and Nobo had ever been
militants. Claims about retaliatory firing were also debunked. The two
men were fired at 89 times, 16 of which hit Gobind alone, in breach of
the court's guidelines on the use of force by the Indian Army.
"All
the six encounters were actually out and out murder," Hegde told NDTV.
"This was only a facade to show that it was an encounter."
In
Manipur's bloody history, such unequivocal indictments of the armed
forces have been rare. But, even attempts to probe the army's excesses
have been denied. The Hegde commission could only learn that of the 66
complaints of human rights violations against the army since 2007, only 3
had been disposed of. The status of those cases wasn't revealed.
Manipur Home Secretary, Suresh Babu, couldn't remember a single instance
when the state had sought the union government's sanction to prosecute
army jawans, as prescribed under AFSPA.
These circumstances,
some say, have only perpetuated a culture of impunity, giving rise to
fresh violence. "If you want to deal with the militancy, ensure that
democratic institutions function," said Babloo Loitongbam, director of
Human Rights Alert. "That is the core of people's anger."
In
December 2014, two important court judgements further acknowledged that
encounter killings were a reality in the state. The first was in the
case of the Malom massacre in November 2000, which saw 10 people killed
by soldiers from the 8th Assam Rifles. After an explosive was set off
near their convoy, the Riflemen had gunned down bystanders at a bus stop
outside Imphal town. Massive unrest followed, giving birth to
Manipur's best known voice against AFSPA, Irom Sharmila. A recent
judgement by the Manipur High Court disproved the army's claims that
they'd been fired upon and ordered compensation of
Rs. 5 lakhs to each of the victim's families.
The
second was the Supreme Court's order of compensation to the family of
Thangjam Manorama. On a night in July 2004, Manorama had been dragged
out of her home in Imphal East district and killed by a team from the
17th Assam Rifles. Upendra Singh, who led an inquiry immediately after
the incident, accused the soldiers of brutally killing her in a fake
encounter.
The probe itself, Singh told us, had been repeatedly
stonewalled by the armed forces and the state. The Assam Rifles didn't
reveal the names of the officers who conducted the operation. His
summons, too, got no reply at first. "They appeared only after I issued
warrant for arrest," Singh told NDTV. His report, submitted a few months
later, was only made public last November, a decade after the killing.
Repeated
attempts to get the Assam Rifles to comment were unsuccessful. A source
in the unit told us that they have internal processes to ensure action
against such violations. But, he did not specify if there was any in
these cases, or what that action could entail.
The court verdicts
have been met with both relief and bitterness in Manipur. Victims's
families are disappointed that neither judgements speak of prosecuting
the guilty army personnel.
Our source in the Assam Rifles also
claimed that extrajudicial killings are an exception, but this remains
contested in the absence of credible data. Activists allege over 1500
such killings since the 1970s, but the Supreme Court could only
investigate 6 and the Manipur government has rejected the longer list.
Last
year, insurgency related deaths in the state had reduced to 48, from
485 in 2008. This has been attributed to the courts' pronouncements on
Malom and Manorama. Suresh Babu, the Home Secretary, said that the
verdicts have also created an environment for insurgents to come back.
After six decades of violent conflict, which has killed thousands, this
relative peace could easily be shattered and the pleas for justice, if
unaddressed, are potentially explosive.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and Union
Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal wave at the crowd during the closing
ceremony of the 19th National Youth Festival in Guwahati on Monday.
