SHRC seeks report on houses damaged during encounters from Chief Secretary
Srinagar: The division bench of State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) comprising Dilshad Shaheen and Abdul Hameed Mir on Wednesday issued a notice to Jammu and Kashmir’s Chief Secretary asking him to file a detailed compliance report on number of houses damaged during encounters between militants and government forces this year so far.
The notice has also been issued to State home secretary, Divisional Commissioner Kashmir and the State police chief asking the trio to file the detailed report by March 6, 2019.
The notice has been issued in response to a petition filed by rights activist, Muhammad Ahsan Untoo .
The division bench pulled up the state home secretary and the DGP stating that “it seems you (home secretary and DGP) are helpless in the matter as no response is coming forthwith inspite of proper summons and reminders.”
“It will be appropriate, if chief secretary convenes the meeting of the concerned officials of the home department, police, and other security agencies also, so that the problem can be looked into in its proper perspective,” the division bench of SHRC observed. “The Chief Secretary shall do the same as early as possible and let the commission know what has been the outcome of such meeting. The appropriate sample submitted by the petitioner be also sent to the Chief Secretary so that the magnitude of the problem is visualized by him and he comes up with the proper reply by March 6, 2019.”
While welcoming the step taken by the commission over the “grave issue of destruction of residential houses caused in encounters, the petitioner said that militants at most of the time enter the residential houses and within no time encounter takes place.
“What is the fault of the house owner?. In a majority of encounters that took place this year, forces have blown up houses where militants were hiding. That is a war crime. So I am within my right to know that how many residential houses were raised to the ground by the forces during encounters and how many people were rendered homeless,” the petitioner said.
