New Delhi, January 29, 2012: Custodial killings, police abuse including torture, and failure to implement policies aimed at protecting vulnerable communities marred India's record in 2011, according to the Human Rights Watch World Report.
The global report released on Monday pointed out that immunity for abuses committed by Indian armed forces also continued, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir, the Indian northeast states, and areas.
The report highlights that India is yet to repeal laws or change policies that allow de jure and de facto impunity for human rights violations, and has failed to prosecute even known perpetrators of serious abuses.
"The Indian defence establishment resisted attempts to repeal or revise the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), a law that provides soldiers in disturbed areas widespread police powers," it said.
The report says that thousands of Kashmiris have disappeared - victims of enforced disappearance during two decades of military violence, their whereabouts unknown.
A police investigation in 2011 by the Jammu and Kashmir Human Rights Commission found 2,730 bodies dumped into unmarked graves at 38 sites in north Kashmir. At least 574 were identified as the bodies of local Kashmiris.
Many Kashmiris believe that some graves contain the bodies of victims of enforced disappearances. Source IANS, TOI