An independent commission should be set up to probe the killing of four protesters by the Border Security Force (BSF) troops in Jammu and Kashmir, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Saturday.

“The Government should act to end the BSF’s long-standing impunity for large number of killings over many years,” HRW said in a statement, adding that the circumstances leading to the deaths were “unclear”.

The BSF reported that on July 18, in Ramban district, its troops interrogated a local resident who it said “made baseless and false allegations about being mistreated’’.

After protesters gathered and “started stone pelting vigorously on the BSF post’’, troops fired at the protesters in self-defence, the BSF said.

Local residents alleged that the BSF soldiers entered a mosque during a search operation and were disrespectful to the mosque staff.

When unarmed protesters gathered at the post, the BSF troops called for police support. The security forces then opened fire on the protesters, the residents said.

Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia Director at HRW, said: “Any finding of illegal use of force by BSF troops should result in prosecutions. Too often the BSF’s version of events is simply accepted, allowing killing after killing for which no one is held to account.”

HRW said it had previously also documented serious human rights violations by BSF troops along the Bangladesh border. It called upon the Indian Government to “publicly order the security forces to follow the United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, the basic principles of which state that security forces shall “apply non-violent means before resorting to the use of force and firearms’’.

>Aditi.n@thehindu.co.in

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