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Author:
Publication: The Times of India
Dated: March 30, 2006
Introduction: J&K Governor Dismisses Allegations That Rights Violators Go Unpunished
During the last 16 years of militancy; the Indian Army has convicted 134 personnel and officers found guilty of committing human rights abuses against civilians in Jammu and Kashmir.
In a strong offensive against propaganda that Indian troops had committed huge violations in Kashmir and remain unpunished,' state governor Lt Gen (retd) S K Sinha quoted official figures saying there was more noise than facts in the campaign, against the armed forces.
He was speaking at the inaugural session of a two day seminar on "Building Peace in Jammu and Kashmir: Challenges and Opportunities" organised by Jammu University's Centre for Strategic and Regional Studies.
"Out of the 134 army personnel, two were, given life imprisonment, 83 dismissed and sentenced to jail for one to 11 years, five simply dismissed from services and 44 given lesser punishment," he told the gathering that included speakers like former ambassador to Pakistan G Parthasarthy; journalist Parveen Swami, chief information commissioner (New Delhi) Wajahat Habibullah, Kashmir experts like Prem Shankar Jha, Jammu Uni versity Vice Chancellor Amitabh Mattoo, Siddiq Wahid, Air Vice Marshal (retd.) Kapil Kak and interlooutor on Kashmir N N Vohra. Sinha said: "We don't do justice to our forces who are constantly being vilified in a hostile and false propaganda atinosphere."
The Indian Army; he said, has a much better record than any other army in the world. Substantiating, Sinha pointed out the Pakistani Army was using air power and. artillery guns against its own people in Waziristan and· the US was using military might on a bigger' scale in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"When. Indiscriminate fire opens; whole towns and religious places get destroyed. Now compare this with the record of the Indian Army and its commendable on their part that not even a single instance is there, in Jammu and Kashmir when the Indian Army used air power or artillery guns against civilians," he said.
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