A top UN official called on India on Friday to investigate allegations of rampant extrajudicial killings and abolish a sweeping law that allows security forces to shoot on sight. Christof Heyns, a UN Special Rapporteur, issued the call after travelling for 12 days through India’s insurgency-hit Jammu and Kashmir state and the northeast, as well as the states of Kerala, Gujarat and West Bengal. Heyns, the UN expert on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, urged the Indian government to set up a commission of inquiry into widespread allegations of what he dubbed “so-called fake encounters”. “Despite constitutional guarantees and a robust human rights jurisprudence, extrajudicial killings are a matter of serious concern in India,” Heyns said. In a statement he described “fake encounters” as: “A scene of a shootout is created in which people who have been targeted are projected as the aggressors who shot at the police and were then killed in self-defence.” India must tackle a culture of impunity that protects troops, police and public officials from prosecution over illegal killings, custodial deaths and detentions, as well as improve rights for women and children, he added.
