WASHINGTON, Sept 12: Indian forces and Kashmiri militants have continued to violate human rights in the occupied valley despite a three-year old peace process between India and Pakistan, a US-based rights group reported on Tuesday.

Human Rights Watch said the Indian army and police still carry out extra-judicial killings, torture and disappearances as well as detain Kashmiris in an arbitrary manner.

The 156-page report — ‘Everyone Lives In Fear: Patterns of Impunity in Jammu and Kashmir’ — did not say whether abuses in the Himalayan region had increased or decreased since the India-Pakistan peace process started in Jan 2004.

The US rights group said the 17-year-old revolt against New Delhi’s rule had slowly drawn hardline Islamist militants into the conflict in a region known for gentle Sufi Islam.

“A conflict over Kashmiri identity and independence has slowly but visibly mutated into a fight under the banner of religion, pitting Islam against Hinduism and drawing religious radicals into its heart,” the report said. More than 45,000 people have died in the insurgency since the early 1990s.

The HRW report documented recent human rights abuses by Indian troops, saying that the troops have committed torture, abductions and arbitrary detentions, and continue to suppress Kashmiris in fake encounter killings.

“Kashmiris continue to live in constant fear as perpetrators of HR abuses among Indian soldiers go scot-free, said Brad Adams, HRW Asian director. He maintained that unless the Indian authorities immediately address the human rights crisis in occupied Kashmir, a political settlement of the dispute with Pakistan would remain illusory.

The report, based on research from 2004 to 2006, detailed human rights violations that have occurred since the 2002 elections in occupied Kashmir in 2002.

Police and Indian army officials told HRW that Indian troops often execute Kashmiri youth instead of bringing them to trial in the belief that keeping them in detention is a security risk.

The report blamed the Indian government for given its troops ‘an effectively free rein’. Through documentation of the failure to prosecute in recent and old cases, the report showed how impunity has fuelled the insurgency.

The report documented cases where Indian troops killed innocent Kashmiris under the authority of controversial laws such as the Jammu and Kashmir Disturbed Areas Act and the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. These laws allow the use of lethal force against any person in occupied territory.

The HRW also noted that the work of both the National Human Rights Commission and the State Human Rights Commission in occupied Kashmir was severely hampered by laws that prohibit them from directly investigating abuses carried out by Indian troops.

“It’s absurd that the world’s largest democracy, with a legal system and recognised judiciary, had laws on its books that prevent members of its security forces from being prosecuted for human rights abuses,” said Mr Adams. He urged the Indian government to repeal these laws and recommit itself to justice for victims of all HR abuses.

KASHMIRI GROUPS: The HRW report also criticised Pakistan for providing material, political and moral support to the militants.

There was considerable evidence that over many years Pakistan has provided Kashmiri militants with training, weapons, funding and sanctuary, the report said.

“Under pressure from the US after 9/11, Pakistan banned several militant groups, including Jaish-i-Mohommad and Lashkar-i-Toiba, but these groups continue to operate after changing their names. Pakistan remains accountable for abuses committed by militants that it has armed and trained,” the HRW reported.