‘Ensure medical assistance to injured’
TIA NEWS
Amnesty International India has asked the authorities in Jammu and Kashmir to ensure that people injured in shootings by security forces get access to medical assistance, and medical professionals could carry out their work without interference.
Amnesty also suggested that security forces must use live ammunition only as a last resort to protect against a threat to life, and not use pellet-firing shotguns against protestors.
At least 23 people, including two children, have been killed in firing by security forces during demonstrations following the killing of a leader of the Hizbul Mujahideen, a banned armed group, on Friday. Over 200 have been injured. A policeman was killed after his vehicle was pushed into a river by a mob in Anantnag district. The state police have reported attacks on police stations and other public property, and looting of weapons. It said that scores of policemen have been injured.
Local newspapers have reported that injured people had been assaulted while on their way to or while being treated at hospitals.
A man who was accompanying an injured protestor to the Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) hospital in Srinagar told Amnesty International India that they were stopped by security forces several times and beaten.
“Any attacks on health facilities or medical professionals are unacceptable, and must be prosecuted,” said Zahoor Wani, Campaigner at Amnesty International India.
“Authorities in Jammu and Kashmir have a duty to protect lives, but they must use force only where it is necessary and to the extent required,” said Zahoor Wani. “Security forces must distinguish between persons engaging in violence and peaceful demonstrators or bystanders.”
“Protestors who engage in human rights abuses must be held accountable for their actions. But any heavy-handedness by those policing the protests risks exacerbating a situation that is already tense.”
Mehbooba Mufti, the J&K Chief Minister, has said that her government would take note of complaints of use of disproportionate force by security forces.
According to the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, firearms should only be used as a last resort, and the intentional lethal use of firearms must only be employed when strictly unavoidable in order to protect life.