ISLAMABAD: The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Saturday called for the establishment of a United Nations commission to investigate extrajudicial killings in Indian-administered Kashmir, after the Indian army admitted to killing three people in a staged encounter in Shopian district earlier this year.
The Indian armed forces on Friday said that their troops had exceeded powers under the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in the killing of three men in Amshipora village in Shopian, southern part of Kashmir Valley in July.
The OIC’s human right’s body, the Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC), said in a Twitter post that it urges the international community to establish a commission of inquiry under the UN “to investigate these extrajudicial killings and grave human rights violations and urge India to repeal AFSPA.”
1/3 OIC-IPHRC strongly condemns #extrajudicialkillings of three innocent Kashmiri labourers in #IOJK, confessed by the Indian occupation forces in its statement of 18 Sept 2020 as ‘excessive wrongdoing’ of its soldiers under draconian #ArmedForcesSpecialPowersAct (AFSPA)
— OIC-IPHRC (@OIC_IPHRC) September 19, 2020
The IPHRC said the Indian army’s admission to the killing “reinforces IPHRC’s repeated concerns on intensity and frequency of such crimes committed by Indian forces in #IIOJK (Indian-occupied Kashmir) with impunity under AFSPA supported by the state apparatus under the Hindutva ideology.”
When the Shopian incident took place in July, the Indian forces said they had killed unidentified “rebels.” The army’s spokesman said on Friday that they were now identified as residents of Rajouri district, after an investigation following a complaint by families accusing soldiers of killing the three men in a staged gunbattle.
On Saturday, Pakistan’s Foreign Office called for a transparent judicial inquiry, under international scrutiny, into the July 18 incident.
“The Indian occupation forces had martyred 25-year old Imtiyaz Ahmed, 20-year old Mohammad Ibrar, and 16-year old Abrar Ahmed in so-called ‘cordon and search’ operation in Shopian on 18 July 2020. The young Kashmiri boys had come from Rajouri to work in apple orchard as laborers,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.
It added that since India’s move revoke Kashmir’s special autonomous status on Aug. 5, 2019, “more than 300, mostly young, Kashmiris have been extra-judicially killed by the Indian occupation forces in fake encounters and staged cordon-and-search operations.”
