Manipur worst case: NHRC

New Delhi, Nov 20 : The National Human Rights Commission has found “substantial” role of state police in extra-judicial killings in Manipur and suspects Assam police too.

Speaking on human rights situation in the two northeastern states after an NHRC team’s recent visit, commission member Satyabrata Pal expressed concern over the ro-le of the police in these states. Of the 44 sample cases of extra-judicial killings examined by the commission in Manipur, 30 were found to be fake encounters while in 14 cases, the panel is not satisfied with the government’s answers.

In Assam, 65 cases of alleged extra-judicial killings came to the notice of the commission through an Assam police newsletter. Pal said these were never reported to the commission which has now taken suo motu notice and is examining the suspected human rights violations.

The NHRC may send notices to the Tarun Gogoi government on these cases.

Earlier, a Supreme Court panel, appointed in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) by a Manipur-based group, investigated some of the 1,528 alleged extra-judicial killings in the state between 1979 and 2012. The findings by retired high court judge Santosh Hegde and former election commissioner J.M. Lyngdoh were damning for central forces particularly the Assam Rifles and the government.

“Manipur police is substantially involved in extra-judicial killings,” Pal told reporters today.

Although the NHRC has kept a watch on and questioned the role of the army and paramilitary forces that work under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, it is the role of state police that is found to be alarming.

According to analysis within the commission, Manipur is one of the worst states in terms of human rights violations. Along with Maharashtra and West Bengal, the northeastern state has not sent satisfactory answers to notices to them by the NHRC.

On October 23 when an NHRC team visited Manipur to meet activist Irom Sharmila, the panel’s special rapporteur Anil Pradhan, a retired director-general of police, was not allowed to meet her.

“The commission has explained to the chief secretary that, under the terms of access that he outlined, the denial of permission to its special rapporteur could only me-an that the Manipur government considered the NHRC inimical to it, and one of its most senior representatives a threat to Sharmila,” says a notice to the government.

The commission is of the view that if Manipur could deny permission to its special rapporteur and to the special rapporteurs of the UN, “it is unlikely that it gives others access to her”. Sharmila, who is force-fed in the jail ward of a government hospital, meets people sparingly.

Manipur chief minister Ibobi Singh has been reminded that his government’s treatment of Sharmila “is in breach of several international human rights standards,” according to sources.