'75% of 'encounter' victims in Manipur were newly married men'

Imphal, December 10 2009: Magisterial Inquiry must invariably be held in all cases of dead which occur in the course of police action, rights activists demanded speaking at the observation functions of the International Human Rights Day which many NGOs observed across the state Thursday like in other parts of the globe.

Holding of seminars, discussions on the ending the conflict situation in the state which resulted in the large scale violation of human rights, reading out of message of UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon on the occasion and statement of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay marked the observation functions.

The structural violence emerging out of the creation of social and political structures that had deprived the rights of indigenous people of Manipur in terms of safety, respect, participation, economy, identity and culture, considered to be the base for the existing conflict, some suggest.

The controversial merger agreement and imposition of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) were also observed as origin of the conflict situation in the state which put Manipur into a trouble state.

Executive director of Human Rights Initiative, Manipur, Lc Jinine Meetei in his key note address to an observation function at State Guest House, Imphal observed that from late 2005 onwards, Manipur undergoes increasing volume of alleged encounter deaths particularly by combined force of government armed/paramilitary forces and Manipur police commandos.

In the year 2008, 303 persons and in the year 2009 till November 262 persons were killed, he counted observing that about 85 percent of killed persons were of the age ranging from 16 to 30 years boys and newly married men.

Based on the survey report of the Human Rights Initiative, Manipur, 75 percent of the victims of encounter are recently married to and young fathers, leaving one kid or two.

"Most of their survived children are of aged about 6 months to 6 years, many a married wives are survived getting pregnant at the time their husbands are killed," he said.

The government of India and Manipur infringes the civil and political rights as well as the economic, social and cultural rights mentioned in Universal Declaration of Human Rights on many occasions, he alleged.

Over and above, destruction of evidence of the encounter deaths/extrajudicial executions due to improper deposition of the dead bodies in the Regional Institution of Medical Sciences (RIMS) mortuary, the autopsy procedure that is noncompliance with the custodial killings, quick disposed off the body, non-conduction of forensic examination, etc. have been questioned in his speech.