Law firm Stoke White has filed an appeal with London's Metropolitan Police for the arrest of two Indian government officials under the Universal Jurisdiction principle.
Chief of the Army Staff General Manoj Mukund Naravane, and Minister of Home Affairs Amit Anil Chandra Shah, could be liable for arrest by the Metropolitan Police's War Crimes Unit after a groundbreaking 41-page report by the Stoke White Investigations Unit on alleged war crimes in Jammu and Kashmir.
Based on 2000 testimonies taken over the past year, the report presents new evidence of how Indian security forces, headed by Naravane and Shah, have been responsible for the torture, kidnapping, extrajudicial killing of activists, journalists, and other innocent civilians, particularly targeting Muslims in the region, according to a press release of Stoke White, which filed evidence to the Met with particular focus on the detention-without charge for 18 years of Zia Mustapha.
Mustapha was arrested at the age of 15, and after 18 years' detention without any credible charges, killed in an extrajudicial killing. Evidence was also submitted that focuses on the torture of human rights campaigner Muhammad Ahsan Untoo.
The report indicates that the violations in question increased under the Global War on Terror (GWOT) and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Stoke White report also presents detailed evidence to attest that Israeli security personnel have been present during, and themselves been responsible for, interrogations whose methods fall under the legal definition of torture.
This is the subject of ongoing investigation by the SWI unit. Khalil Dewan, author of the report and head of the SWI unit, said: "This report is dedicated to the families who have lost loved ones without a trace, and who experience daily threats when trying to attain justice.
"The systematic nature of war crimes conducted by Indian authorities against Kashmiri Muslims has been documented, but this report brings forward new evidence of complicity between Delhi and Tel Aviv within a broader context of security policies and rhetoric invoked by the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). This complicity has not been exposed in such detail before, and our data is growing."
Stoke White press release quoted its director Hakan Camuz as saying: "The fact that Kashmiri Muslims have only international law to turn to after decades of seeking justice in their own country and only being subjected to further violence for doing so, means Stoke White must begin the process of justice on their behalf, in a country that we understand respects the rule of law.
"The application to the UK Met Police's war crimes unit is a launch pad to investigate prime minister Narendra Modi's government ministers for war crimes. It should also be seen as the start of a broader legal action on the enabling environment created by the GWOT internationally, which has seen minors incarcerated and journalists and lawyers silenced under the blanket of 'countering terrorism', with no legal challenge.
"We hope this is the start of genuine justice for survivors of war crimes, and a firming up of the international legal landscape so that perpetrators are apprehended according to their crimes, no matter who they may be. The world can no longer be bystanders, to India's crimes and impunity."
Human rights lawyers have increasingly used the universal jurisdiction principle to seek justice for people who were unable to file criminal complaints in their home countries or with the International Criminal Court, located in The Hague, the Associated Press said, adding:
Last week, a German court convicted a former Syrian secret police officer of crimes against humanity for overseeing the abuse of thousands of detainees at a jail near Damascus a decade ago.