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Rights violations: US report indicts India

Washington, February 26
The US State Department today said serious human rights problems remained in India.

It listed violations in Jammu and Kashmir and the north eastern states as torture and rape by the police and other agents of the government, poor prison conditions, arbitrary arrest and incommunicado detention. Stating that violent secessionist movements and the authorities’ attempt to repress them and deficient police methods and training were rampant in Jammu and Kashmir, the report said the judicial tolerance of the government’s heavy handed counter insurgency tactics, refusal of the security forces to obey court orders and terrorists threats had disrupted the judicial system in the trouble-torn state.

The number of insurgency-related killings in Jammu and Kashmir and the North-East by regular security forces increased from the previous year.

The report also flayed the Kashmiri militant groups for continuing the concerted campaign of execution-type killings of civilians which they began three years ago. UNI