A Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) court Tuesday issued notices to seventeen respondents (including the state government and director general of police) allegedly involved in the Kunan Poshpora operation. The court was hearing a petition filed by five survivors of the incident.
The case relates to events that took place on a February night in 1991, when soldiers of the 4 Rajputana Rifles of the Army?s 68 Brigade swooped down on Kunan and Poshpora villages during a search operation, forced men out of their homes and confined them into two houses in Kunan, while they allegedly gangraped women and children.
Last October a petition was filed seeking the constitution of a special investigating team (SIT), headed by an officer above the rank of Senior Superintendent of Police and monitored by the High Court, to look into the case.
On Tuesday a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice M M Kumar and Justice Muzzaffar Hussain Attar issued notices to seventeen respondents, including the J&K Government, J&K Director General of Police, the Union of India and nine officers of the 4 Rajputana Rifles.
Notices were also issued to B G Verghese (former member of the Press Council of India) and Wajahat Habibullah (the then Divisional Commissioner of Kashmir), who were accused of playing an integral role in covering up the case.
?The counsel (for the survivors) emphasised that despite the order of further investigations by the Judicial Magistrate, Kupwara, dated 18 June 2013, the SP (Superintendent of Police) of Kupwara, Abdul Jabbar, had not carried out any substantive investigation within the stipulated time… and instead repeatedly sought extensions without notice to the survivors,?? said Samreen Mushtaq, spokesperson, Support Group for Justice for Kunan Poshpora.
The court also recorded the contentions of the survivors that no proper investigation had been carried out and that the government had not provided any compensation to the survivors since, the government had said, there was no ex-gratia or compensation scheme in existence for rape victims in 1991.
The court issued a show cause to the state, asking it to file a status report on the investigation and the decision taken by the a High Level Committee on compensation to the survivors.