The Human Rights Watch/Asia (HRW) in a 49-page report entitled: India's Secret Army in Kashmir: New Patterns of Abuse Emerge in the Conflict, documents widespread abuses by several state-sponsored militias commonly referred to as "renegades," including attacks on journalists, human rights activists and medical workers. While attempting to reassure the international community that they have taken steps to curb human rights abuses in Kashmir, Indian authorities have instead subcontracted their abusive tactics to groups with no official accountability.

The HRW makes the following recommendations for action to be taken by the international community to address the human rights crisis in Kashmir.

n The US, UK, France, Germany, Russia and India's other trading partners should suspend all military sales and all programs of military cooperation with India, including joint exercises, until India disarms all state-sponsored paramilitary groups operating in Kashmir.

n At the annual World Bank-sponsored donors meeting on India in September, participant countries should issue a public statement indicating that continued economic support for India should not been seen as support for the Indian government's human rights policies. In the statement, and in private and public meetings with Indian government officials, members of the donor group should raise concerns about the state sponsorship of paramilitary organisations and press India to disband all such groups. They should press India to invite the UN Special Rapporteurs on Torture and Summary or Arbitrary Executions, and the Working Groups on Disappearances and Arbitrary Detention, to visit Kashmir. They should also raise concerns about attacks on human rights monitors in Kashmir, and press India to allow full access to Kashmir for international human rights groups.

n The diplomatic staff of India's allies and trading partners should upgrade their reporting on human rights abuses by state-sponsored militias in Kashmir, as well as abuses by regular security forces.

n The International community should condemn Pakistan's efforts to support abusive militants groups operating in Kashmir and make any future arms sales or military cooperation agreements contingent on an end to Pakistan's support for abusive military groups. The government of Pakistan should end all support for abusive militant organisations in Kashmir.

In the months preceding the elections, Indian security forces have intensified their efforts against militant groups, stepping up cordon­and­search operations and summarily executing captured militant leaders. Alongside them, operating as a secret, illegal army, have been state­sponsored paramilitary groups, composed of captured or surrendered former militants described as "renegades" by the Indian government. Many of these groups have been responsible for grave human rights abuses, including summary executions, torture, and illegal detention as well as election­related intimidation of voters.

Civilians have also been their victims, and the militia groups have singled out journalists, human rights activists and medical workers for attack. They have been given free rein to patrol major hospitals in Srinagar, particularly the Soura Institute, the Sri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) hospital and the Bone and Joint Hospital. They have murdered, threatened, beaten and detained hospital staff, in some cases these abuses have occurred in full view of security force bunkers or in the presence of security force officers. They have also removed patients from hospitals. These abuses constitute clear violations of medical neutrality.

In some cases, attacks by these paramilitary groups appear to have been carried out on orders from security officers; in other cases, the groups appear to operate on their own, within broadly defined limits to their discretionary powers and the full expectation on the part of the security forces that they will use their discretion to take initiatives within the overall counter-insurgency strategy of fighting terror with terror. Their actions are taken with the knowledge and complicity of official security forces.

Violations of human rights and humanitarian law by the regular security forces ­ the army, the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) ­ have also continued. These violations include the deliberate killing of detainees in the custody of the security forces in Kashmir and reprisal killings of civilians.

Regular forces have also been responsible for disappearances and reprisal attacks against civilians. More than one hundred cases of detainees disappearing in the custody of the security forces have been documented by human rights groups since the conflict began; to the HRW's knowledge, not one has resulted in the prosecution of any member of the security forces. Security legislation has increased the likelihood of such abuses by authorising the security forces to shoot to kill and to destroy civilian property while at the same time protecting them from prosecution for human rights violations.

Torture is also used to punish detainees who are believed to support or sympathise with the militants and to create a climate of political repression. The practice of torture is facilitated by the fact that detainees are generally held in temporary detention centres, controlled by the various security forces, without access to the courts, relatives or medical care.

Methods of torture include severe beatings, electric shock, crushing the leg muscles with a wooden roller, and burning with heated objects. The Indian government has not made public any investigations into any of the many documented cases of torture, nor has it ever announced that a member of the security forces was prosecuted or punished for torture. Security personnel in Kashmir have also been responsible for rape as a counter-insurgency tactic.

The Indian authorities have done little to curb human right violations by their army and security forces. The Indian government's failure to account for these abuses and take rigorous action against those members of its forces responsible for murder, rape and torture amounts to a policy of condoning human rights violations.

Militants who surrender and then become recruits for one of the paramilitary groups are apparently motivated by the pay and the opportunity to carry out attacks on former rivals without risk of being killed by the security forces. Ikhwan-ul-Muslimoon, for example, has targeted Hezb-ul-Mujahedin forces as well as members of Jamaat-e-Islami in its attacks. It works with the Rashtriya Rifles and with the State Task Force, a division of the Jammu and Kashmir Police created in 1995 of recruits from mostly outside the state. It functions in the Hajan area and in the Shivpura area of Srinagar.

Persons protected by Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions include all non-combatants, even if they have provided food, shelter or other partisan support to one side or the other, and members of the armed forces of either side who are in custody, are wounded or are otherwise hors de combat. If under these circumstances, such persons are summarily executed or die as a result of torture, their deaths are tantamount to murder.

The government has also forcibly recruited some paramilitary group members by detaining members of their families as hostages until the former militants agree to work with the security forces. The security forces have also recruited former militants who were themselves detained and tortured by the security forces. The HRW interviewed many detainees who were told by the security forces that the torture would end if they agreed to work with their captors.

The BSF and the Rashtriya Rifles are financing their own paramilitaries. According to one press report, competition to claim a greater number of surrendered weapons and recruits has led to friction between army forces and Border Security Force (BSF).

International human rights law prohibits the arbitrary deprivation of life under any circumstances. The government of India is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Article 6 of the ICCPR expressly prohibits derogation from the right to life. Thus, even during time of emergency, "[n]o one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life."

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) also prohibits torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Article 4 and 7 of the ICCPR explicitly ban torture, even in times of national emergency or when the security of the state is threatened.

The evidence gathered by the HRW indicates that the Indian army, Border Security Force, Special Task Force, Central Reserve Police Force, and state-sponsored paramilitary "renegade" groups -- the principal government forces operating in Jammu and Kashmir -- have systematically violated these fundamental norms of international human rights law. Under international law, India's state-sponsored militias are state agents and therefore must abide by international human rights and humanitarian law. The government of India is ultimately responsible for their actions.