Srinagar, July 31: In an important development on Monday, which could shatter the government claims on human rights abuses and cause it considerable embarrassment, Justice A M Mir resigned from the post of chairman State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) to protest "growing human rights violations in the state and non-implementation of commission’s recommendations."

Justice Mir said the SHRC was just a ruse to befool the international community that human rights of people are being respected.
"Right from the day I assumed the office, I have been observing that the Government is not serious about the Commission. I all along made strenuous efforts for drawing the attention of the Government to the difficulties of the institution. The position has worsened from day to day," Justice Mir writes in the resignation letter to the Governor, Lt Gen (Retired) S K Sinha.

"During my tenure, not a single recommendation made by the commission was implemented. SHRC has not been able to accomplish the object for which it was established. I waited for long in the hope that my efforts might yield some results," the letter reads.

"This was all in vain. During this period, I continued in office much against my conscience. I am certain that my further continuance will be of no use. In the light of the above circumstance, I have decided to resign from the post with effect from of August 1, 2006," the letter reads.

"Security agencies arrest, harass and killed innocent people with impunity. Our reports are witness to it. In absence of any investigating agency, I was just wasting my time in the commission by making recommendations which were never implemented," Justice Mir told Greater Kashmir.

"SHRC is just an eyewash to befool the international community that human rights of people are being respected. When our recommendations were not implemented, commission’s credibility got eroded and people lost faith in it," Justice Mir said adding "this had made the functioning of the commission redundant."

Accusing the state Government of failing to "tame" the troops and police, Justice Mir said, "government is not serious in maintaining human rights of people."

"Not to talk of our recommendations, Government did not take action on its own. For three years, I cried hoarse to wake them up but they didn’t," he said adding, "and the result is Valley has become a graveyard,"
"I am independent now and I will openly fight for the rights of the suppressed people," he said adding in 2005, he got a case registered against nine cops in Utrasu for killing a civilian "after personal efforts."

Last month, Justice Mir had expressed strong resentment over the unabated human rights violations by troops and decided to take up the matter with New Delhi.

"The commission is shocked over the recent killing of civilians in the Valley by troops. These incidents could have been prevented had government implemented our recommendations. Now we’ll take up the human rights violations and other issues with the Centre," Justice Mir had told Greater Kashmir.

Since its inception in 1997, SHRC has received 3,333 complaints of human rights abuses. Out of these, the commission disposed 2,179 complaints after investigation with recommendations to the government for providing relief to the victims.

But the commission did not receive any "Action Taken Report (ATR)" from the government on their recommendations. Since November 2002, when PDP-Congress coalition government assumed office, the SHRC has received a record 1,863 complaints till March this year. They include 240 of harassment, custodial killings 76, disappearance 248, murder 24, rapes 9, killing of innocent civilians 10 and death enquiry 16.

Born in Dialgam in Islamabad in 1940, Justice Mir after graduating from SP College, did his MA and LLB from Aligarh Muslim University. After joining Bar Association he was elevated to the Bench. In 1997 he was appointed as First Pusre till 2003, after which he was appointed as chairperson of SHRC.

(Greater Kashmir, Srinagar, July 31, 2006.)