SRINAGAR: Two human rights groups in Indian-controlled Kashmir will ask New Delhi and the United Nations to investigate more than 1,000 alleged cases of abuse by the army after failing to secure justice in the courts, they said Wednesday.

Top military and police officials are among hundreds named as having committed crimes during the ongoing conflict, according to the report by the Parents of Disappeared Persons and the International People's Tribunal for Indian-administered Kashmir.

Military personnel were responsible for 1,080 extrajudicial killings, 172 disappearances and numerous cases of torture and sexual assault in the disputed region, the report, titled “Structures of Violence: The Indian State in Jammu and Kashmir,” said.

Evidence by the rights groups gathered over four years includes hundreds of on-the-record testimonies from witnesses and victims, scrutiny of official records under right-to-information laws as well as lengthy litigation.

“This report will be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council as well as the government of India,” Khurram Pervez, a prominent rights activist who took part in the investigation, said.

The NGOs say all remedies available within the Indian justice system have been exhausted, and named 972 alleged perpetrators it says have gone unpunished.

Kartik Murukutla, an author of the report and a lawyer who has sat on a UN tribunal for Rwanda, said government forces received “institutional impunity.”

An army spokesman said he had not seen the report and had no comment, while the local government had no immediate response.

India and Pakistan both administer divided Kashmir in part but claim it in full, a constant source of tension between the nuclear-armed rivals.

An emergency law in force in the region since 1990 grants security forces wide powers to raid homes and kill on suspicion of illegal actions, and forbids them from being tried in civilian courts.

But rights activists say the civilian victims of abuses by soldiers often struggle to bring complaints to the military courts, which are reserved for internal disciplinary hearings, leaving them with limited legal recourse.

However on Monday six Indian soldiers were sentenced to life in prison after a military trial found them guilty of abducting and killing three civilians in 2010 during a gun battle near the border with Pakistan.

Opinion

Editorial

A difficult story
Updated 12 Jun, 2026

A difficult story

Unless productivity becomes the dominant target of economic policy, Pakistan will continue to oscillate between crises and fragile recovery.
Rough waters
12 Jun, 2026

Rough waters

AMONGST the key potential triggers for fresh conflict in South Asia is water. The Indian state is behaving in an...
Politicised football
12 Jun, 2026

Politicised football

ALMOST three-and-half years since Lionel Messi led Argentina to FIFA World Cup glory, the latest edition of...
GB polls’ aftermath
Updated 11 Jun, 2026

GB polls’ aftermath

The new administration must address the region’s issues proactively.
Peace in retreat
11 Jun, 2026

Peace in retreat

THE ceasefire announced in April was supposed to create space for negotiations. Instead, it has been repeatedly...
A few good men
11 Jun, 2026

A few good men

IT was a brave move, no doubt. This Tuesday, in the land of the Afghan Taliban, a few good men decided to take a...