Murderous Attack

We, members of Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisations, condemn the murderous attack, according to the eyewitnesses, by personnel from the Central Reserve Police Force and Special Operation Group on human rights defender and lawyer Pervez Imroz. On June 30, 2008 at approximately 10.30 pm these personnel knocked on the door of Pervez’s house. When his wife Ruksana did not open the door they threw a gre­ nade and then opened fire. On hearing this neighbours and villagers rushed out of their houses. The security personnel then ran away, but while retreating they beat up people who had gathered outside. These people were able to recognise them as security force personnel because they were all in uniform. Moreover, when friends and relatives of Pervez Imroz tried to get in touch with the inspector general of police and the senior superin­ tendent of police, neither of them took their calls

The attack on Pervez Imroz comes barely 10 days after he and his colleagues were accosted on June 20, 2008 by J and K police when they were returning from Kupwara where they had gone to investigate “unidentified” graves. The fact­finding is part of the effort to unravel the mystery of enforced disappearance of 8,000­10,000 persons since 1990 in J and K. There is some reason to believe that the answer may be lying buried in the “mass graves” that came to light recently in the Uri sector of J and K, which had been investigated by Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society. We fear that the attempted attack on him could be linked to thwart further investigations into this matter.