Submit reports by Aug 6,SHRC to cops

The State Human Rights Commission has asked senior police officers to submit their reports pertaining to the 1995 kidnapping of six foreign tourists and their subsequent killing,as allegations have been levelled against their roles in the case.

The State Human Rights Commission has asked senior police officers to submit their reports pertaining to the 1995 kidnapping of six foreign tourists and their subsequent killing,as allegations have been levelled against their roles in the case.

The petition was submitted in the SHRC by the International Peoples Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice and the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons after a recent book,The Meadow: Kashmir 1995 Where The Terror Began,written by British journalists Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark,claimed that the foreigners were murdered by gunmen working for the Army and not militants as was alleged.

Earlier,the Commission had granted prosecution a months time to file these reports. As the case came up for hearing before a double bench,the Commission was informed that police officials against whom allegations were levelled have not responded and documents pertaining to the investigation conducted by the Crime Branch have not been received.

Chief Prosecuting Officer submitted before the bench that he has written to the concerned authorities but till date not received any report either from the Director General of Police,Inspector General of Police Crime or Deputy Commissioner,Anantnag.

Let the Secretary,SHRC,write to all the reporting officers to submit their reports by or before the next date, directed the Commission.

The Commission asked the administrative officer to issue fresh reminders to then Inspector General of Police Parminder Singh Gill who retired as Director General of Punjab Police and subsequently contested and lost Assembly polls on Akali Dal ticket and then SP,Anantnag,Ashkoor Wani still serving.

Secretary,SHRC,Tariq Banday told The Indian Express that the case has been listed for August 6.

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The tourists Americans John Childs and Don Hutching,Britons Paul Wells and Keith Mangan,German Dirk Hasert,and Norwegian Hans Christian Ostro were abducted by Al Faran,a little known group which was alleged to be the front for the now defunct Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. The abductors killed all but Childs,who managed to escape on July 8,1995,the police had claimed.

However,the book has claimed that Al Faran had killed only Ostro,and handed over others to renegades working for the security agencies,who subsequently murdered the tourists in the remote villages of Mati and Gawran on December 24,1995.