[Reader-list] Fake Encounters

Thu Aug 6 10:17:12 IST 2009

Dear All,
How long can we bear the burnt of the security men killing youth like this?
And such incidents are becoming more common both across time and space. Just
read the story in the link or as pasted below.

http://tehelka.com/story_main42.asp?filename=Ne080809murder_in.asp

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*From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 6, Issue 31, Dated August 08, 2009**CURRENT
AFFAIRS* *fake encounter*

*Murder In Plain Sight*

*In Manipur, death comes easy. In this damning sequence of photos, a local
photographer captures the death of a young man, killed in a false encounter
by the police in broad daylight, 500 metres from the state assembly. How can
a State justify such a war against its own people, asks **TERESA REHMAN*
*1. Chongkham Sanjit, 27, is seen standing in a PCO with the
Manipur Police Commandos adjacent to a pharmacy (marked by an arrow)
in Imphal on July 23**2. Though surrounded by commandos, there
is no obvious resistance from Sanjit
(marked by a red circle))**3. Sanjit is seen calmly
walking away with the heavily armed commandos**4. While a commando reaches
for his pistol, Sanjit remains visibly calm. They are standing barely 500
metres from the state assembly**5. Sanjit, known to be a former member of
the People’s
Liberation Army, had retired on health grounds. Though
surrounded, he is calm and there seems to be no urgency
or imminent violence in the picture**6. In a sudden turn of events, Sanjit
is hustled away roughly
by the commandos**7. Sanjit is dragged by the commandos into the pharmacy.
He has been surrounded by commandos for several minutes
and is obviously unarmed**8. A few minutes later, commandos drag Sanjit’s
dead body out of the pharmacy**9. Sanjit’s body is thrown into a truck. At
no point
while the camera was clicking had he offered any resistance
to the commandos**10. Sanjit’s dead body on the truck. The camera continues
to click. The commandos
make no attempt to stop the public gaze**11. The body of Rabina Devi, a
pregnant bystander.
She was killed a few metres away in the police firing
when they chased a fleeing youth**12. Sanjit’s body on a stretcher.His
family claims
he had broken his earlier links with the militants
and was leading a normal life*

*View slideshow<http://tehelka.com/story_main42.asp?filename=Ne080809murder_in.asp#>
***

If any picture can speak a thousand words, these photos — available
exclusively to TEHELKA — could fill volumes. They capture a shootout that
happened in the heart of Imphal, Manipur’s capital, barely 500 metres from
the state assembly, on July 23. They show the moments before, during and
after the ‘encounter killing’ of a 27-year-old Indian citizen – a young man
called Chongkham Sanjit, shot dead by a heavily-armed detachment from
Manipur’s Rapid Action Police Force, commonly known as the Manipur Police
Commandos (MPC).

There is a grotesque and brutal history to the bullets that killed this
young man. For years, decades even, security forces in Manipur have faced
allegations of human rights violations and extrajudicial murders committed
under cover of the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). In
2000, Irom Sharmila, stirred by the gunning down of 10 civilians, including
an 18-year-old National Child Bravery Award winner, by the Assam Rifles,
started a hunger fast — that lasts to this day — in protest against the
AFSPA. In July 2004, the nation was rocked by the protests of a group of
Manipuri women who marched to an Assam Rifles base in Imphal, stripped naked
and raised a searing banner: “Indian Army Rape Us”. They were protesting the
rape, torture and murder, a fortnight earlier, of Thangjam Manorama, 32, who
was picked up from her home at night by the Assam Rifles.

Manipur rose up in protest that day, and in August 2004, the Centre
relented, withdrawing the AFSPA from Imphal’s municipal zone.
‘Post-Manorama,’ as history is marked in Manipur, the army has taken a
backseat, withdrawing outside the municipality. However, life in Manipur is
still lived on the tightrope. In a seemingly new counter-insurgency
strategy, the MPC has unleashed a reign of terror in the state.

*PAST INCIDENTS*

*NOVEMBER, 2008:
SALAM AJIT SINGH*
Singh, 30, was allegedly killed by the Imphal West Police Commandos and 39
Assam Rifles on November 7, 2008. Singh ran a taxi service. In January 2009
his family filed a petition with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)

*DECEMBER, 2008:
MD TASLIUMUDDIN*
Tasliumuddin, 20, a daily wage labourer, was allegedly killed in an
‘encounter’ by the Imphal West Police Commandos and 32 Assam Rifles on
December 30, 2008. The NHRC has registered a case

*DECEMBER 2008:
OKRAM RANJIT SINGH
*Singh, 27, a brick mason was allegedly killed in an ‘encounter’ by the
Imphal West Police Commandos and 12 Maratha Light Infantry on December 22,
2008 in Imphal West district. The family has filed a petition with the NHRC

*JANUARY 2009:
LAISHRAM DIPSON*
Dipson, 28, was allegedly killed by the Imphal West Police Commandos and 39
Assam Rifles on January 12, 2009 at Laingam Khul. The lorry driver’s family
has filed a police complaint

*JANUARY 2009:
NINGTHOUJAM ANAND*
The 30-year-old auto rickshaw driver was allegedly killed by the Imphal West
Police Commandos and 16 Assam Rifles on January 21, 2009. A complaint has
been filed with the NHRC

The organisation known as the Manipur Police Commandos (MPC) was first set
up in 1979 as the Quick Striking Force (QSF). Former Inspector General of
Police, Thangjam Karunamaya Singh told TEHELKA, “They were trained for
special operations. But the men had strict instructions. They were told to
fire only when fired upon and pay special attention to the needs of women,
children and the elderly. If they arrested somebody on suspicion, they had
to take responsibility for their security,” stated Singh.

The MPC does not fall under the AFSPA but has now become notorious across
the state. It operates only in the four districts of Manipur – Imphal East,
Imphal West, Thoubal and Bishnupur. The MPC is housed in isolated commando
barracks and has minimal contact with the general population, though its
personnel are all locals.

Extra-judicial killings, and, in particular, fake encounters by the MPC have
become common in Manipur. In 2008, there were 27 recorded cases of torture
and killing attributed to the MPC. Where once they conducted ‘encounters’ in
isolated places, they now do not think twice before operating in cities, in
broad daylight, as they did on July 23. In several incidents, innocent
civilians carrying money and valuables have been robbed and sometimes
killed. In some cases official action has been taken against commandos for
misconduct. For instance, in July 2009, five police commandos who had
reportedly robbed three youths were suspended. But for the most part, their
extra-judicial activity goes scot free.

According to the official version of Sanjit’s encounter death at 10:30am on
July 23, a team of MPC personnel was conducting frisking operations in
Imphal’s Khwairamband Keithel market. They saw a suspicious youth coming
from the direction of the Uripok locality. When asked to stop, the version
goes, the youth suddenly pulled out a gun and ran away, firing at the public
in a bid to evade the police.

The official record states that the youth was finally cornered inside Maimu
Pharmacy near Gambhir Singh Shopping Arcade. He was asked to surrender.
Instead, he fired at the police. The police retaliated and the youth was
killed. The account states that a 9mm Mauser pistol was “recovered”. The
youth was identified from his driver’s license as Chongkham Sanjit, son of
Chongkham Khelson of Kongpal Sajor Leikai, Manipur.

Usually, such official versions of encounters are difficult to disprove
though everyone may know them to be false. But in an almost unprecedented
coincidence, in Sanjit’s case, a local photographer rushed to the scene and
managed to shoot a minute-by-minute account of the alleged ‘encounter’. The
photographs (shown in preceding pages) clearly reveal that, contrary to the
official version, Sanjit was, in fact, standing calmly as the police
commandos frisked him and spoke to him. He was escorted inside the storeroom
of the pharmacy. He was shot point blank inside and his dead body was
brought out. The photographer, fearing for his safety, does not dare publish
these pictures in Manipur.
The photographs clearly reveal that contrary to the official version, Sanjit
was standing calmly as the MPC commandos frisked him

Eyewitness accounts partly corroborate the police version — except their
account is obviously about a young man other than Sanjit. These witnesses
state that a youth did escape from a police frisking party about a hundred
metres away from where Sanjit was killed. The police chased this youth and
opened fire, killing an innocent bystander, Rabina Devi — who was pregnant
at the time — and injuring five other civilians. Afterwards, the police
showed the media a 9mm Mauser pistol which they alleged was thrown away by
the militant before he fled. After about half an hour, the police claimed to
have killed the youth who escaped from their hands “in an encounter”;
according to them, this youth was Sanjit. The photographs clearly indicate
otherwise.

The police claim Sanjit was a member of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA),
a proscribed insurgent outfit. Chief Minster Okram Ibobi Singh also made a
controversial statement in the assembly that day, asserting that there was
no other alternative but to kill insurgents.

Sanjit was indeed a former PLA cadre. He was arrested in 2000 but freed. In
2006, he retired from the outfit on health grounds. In 2007, though, he was
detained again under the NSA and was only released a year later. Since then,
he had been staying with his family at his home at Khurai Kongpal Sajor
Leikai and had been working as an attendant in a private hospital.

But even if Sanjit was a former militant, he should not have have been
killed in a false encounter. The photos show him talking to his killers,
calmly, without offering any resistance. He was frisked moments before the
shootout. He was not an insurgent on the run. In fact, Sanjit had to make
periodic appearances before the Court, a requirement that the Court later
lifted. “Legally speaking, Sanjit was a free man,” says M Rakesh, a lawyer
at the Gauhati High Court’s Imphal Bench. There are also significant
inconsistencies in the police versions of the recovery of the weapon. First,
they said it was flung away by the fleeing militant. Then they said it was
recovered from Sanjit after the encounter. As the photos show, Sanjit was
ushered into the pharmacy, not chased in. Also, if Sanjit was, in fact,
armed with the 9mm Mauser, why wasn’t it found during the frisking? Why, as
the photos show, was he taken inside the storeroom?
First the police said the pistol was flung away by the fleeing militant.
Then they said it was recovered from Sanjit after the encounter

The law says if a death is caused by state forces in an encounter which
cannot be justified by Section 46 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the
officer causing the death would be guilty of culpable homicide. In this
case, only a rigorous investigation can establish what exactly transpired.
Instead of instituting a judicial enquiry, however, the state government is
setting up a departmental enquiry, which is unlikely to yield any justice to
the victims’ families. Sanjit’s family claims he had broken his earlier
links with the militants and was leading a normal life. They say he had gone
out that day to buy medicines for his uncle, who is undergoing treatment at
Imphal’s JN Hospital. Says Sanjit’s mother, Inaotombi Devi, “Life is very
cheap in Manipur.”

Manipur is routinely roiled by such devastating narratives. Ex-MLA
78-yearold Sarat Singh Loitongbam’s son Satish Singh was killed by the armed
forces. Though a devout Hindu, he refuses to perform his son’s last rites
until his name is cleared of wrongdoing. Like Satish, there is Ningombam
Gopal Singh, a 39- year-old Grade-IV employee at the Imphal Bench of the
Gauhati High Court, a man who was chatting over tea with women at a hotel
when he was dragged off by men in plainclothes, to be shot dead in an
‘encounter’. There is 24-year-old Elangbam Johnson Singh, a student and
part-time salesman, picked up by the MPC while out with a friend and killed
in an encounter, his corpse at the morgue bearing signs of torture. Stories
like these are a grotesque lattice in Manipur. “Life in Manipur,” as one
observer puts it, “is like a lottery. You are alive because you are lucky.”

*WRITER’S EMAIL*
teresa at tehelka.com
*From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 6, Issue 31, Dated August 08, 2009*

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