According to the Associated Press, on January 18, local time, a London-based law firm submitted an application to the British police to arrest Indian Army Chief of Staff Naravan and Interior Minister Amit Shah on suspicion of committing war crimes in Kashmir.
Indian Army Chief of Staff Naravan. Source: Ministry of Defence, India
The law firm, Stoke White, said it had submitted extensive evidence to the war crimes unit of London's Metropolitan Police documenting how the Indian army, led by Naravan and Shah, was responsible for the torture, kidnapping and murder of activists, journalists and civilians. It also charges eight unnamed senior Indian military officers with direct involvement in Indian-controlled war crimes and torture in Kashmir.
The law firm's report is based on more than 2,000 testimonies between 2020 and 2021. "There is good reason to believe that the Indian authorities are committing war crimes and other acts of violence against civilians in Jammu and Kashmir," the report states. ”
Minister of Home Affairs of India Amit Shah. Image source: Indian media
According to it, the request to the London Police was based on the principle of "universal jurisdiction", which held that States had the right to prosecute individuals accused of crimes against humanity anywhere in the world. The London-based international law firm said it saw it as the first legal action taken abroad against Indian authorities suspected of committing "war crimes" in Kashmir.
The firm's international law director, Hakan Kamuz, said he hoped the report would persuade British police to open an investigation and eventually arrest these Indian officials, some of whom had financial assets and other ties to Britain, when they entered britain.
Camuz said: "We are asking the British government to perform its duties by investigating their actions and arresting them on the basis of the evidence we have given them, and we want them to be held accountable." ”
Over the past two decades, tens of thousands of civilians, armed men and security personnel have been killed in Indian-controlled Kashmir. The Indian army has been accused of systematic abuse and arrest of local populations opposed to Indian rule. In June 2018, the UN Human Rights Office released a report on the human rights situation in Kashmir, calling for an independent international investigation into reports of human rights abuses and saying "perpetuation for abuses by Indian security forces." But the Indian government has consistently denied allegations of "human rights violations" and insisted that such claims were separatist propaganda.