Death anniversary observation of Samarendra ; Rights activist dwell on fake enounters
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, June 11 2017: Director of Human Rights Alert, Babloo Loitongbam has said that incidents of fake encounter increased sharply in the State as a result of the formation of a Unified Command consisting of high officials of the State police and Central para military forces, headed by the Chief Minister.

He made the statement at a discussion programme on contemporary issues held at Lamyanba Shanglen today, in connection with the 17th death anniversary observation of Arambam Samarendra.

In the morning session of the second day of the observation, Babloo spoke on the topic of 'Changing Discourse on Human Rights in Manipur' .

Death anniversary observation of Samarendra ; Rights activist dwell on fake enounters

He said that it is shameful for India to still keep a draconian act like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (1968) in some parts of the country even though it is trying its best to become a member of the UN Security Council.

Babloo claimed that when the United Nation's Special Rapporteur on Extra Judicial Executions came to India in 2011 to investigate issues regarding extra judicial executions, he was barred from entering Manipur.

He pointed out that although the official was denied entry to the State, he himself along with members of Extra Judicial Execution Victim Families Association, Manipur (EEVFAM) went to meet the official at Guwahati and submitted a detailed report regarding the extra judicial execution cases in Manipur.

The report also contained the list of 1528 victims executed in fake encounter incidents and it has been pivotal in bringing a positive change regarding human rights in the State, he added.

Explaining that the setting up of a Unified Command in 2003 resulted in a sharp rise of fake encounter cases, Babloo said that the State police and Central para military forces carried out numerous operations in the hills from 2003 to 2008 on the pretext of driving out militants.

"In the valley, numerous individuals were killed in supposed shoot out with security personnel", he said.

During those times, the police refused to file any FIR, the Manipur Human Rights Commission was also shut down and the police always claimed that the individuals were killed in shoot out with the security forces whenever the National Human Rights Commission called for a report.

Most of the cases were closed and no proper enquiries were conducted.

Even though the Court ordered compensation to be paid to the victim's families in some cases, no proper actions were taken up against the guilty security personnel.

Babloo conveyed that Human Rights Alert and EEVFAM filed a petition to the Supreme Court in 2012 and as a result, a three member independent committee led by Justice Santosh Hegde arrived at Manipur and investigated five cases (seven victims).

The committee submitted a report to the Supreme Court which stated that all seven victims of the five cases were not involved in any shoot out, had no past criminal records and there was no mechanism to check extra use of force by the security personnel in the name of AFSPA.

Babloo said that the fake encounter cases in Manipur abruptly declined after the Supreme Court caught wind of it and added that a list of 255 known case of fake encounter incidents have been sent to the Supreme Court and there is a high possibility that the Supreme Court may pass further judgement regarding the cases soon.

During the afternoon session of the programme, Arambam Samarendra Trust chairperson, Dr Arambam Lokendro spoke on 'Government of India-NSCN (IM) Political Dialogue and Implications For Manipur's Future' .