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For the first time ever since the Army initiated counter insurgent operations in Kashmir, J-K Government has admitted that the Army camps based in North Kashmir's Handwara had been taking "residents for forced labour, night patrolling and other operations, without paying wages to them".
The people taken for forced labour included Engineer Rashid, currently an MLA, who was then an assistant engineer with the state Government. He approached the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC), who, in turn, asked the state police to submit a report.
"I, along with the entire male population of 24 villages from Kargam to Nowgam in Mawar area (Langate constituency), were taken by the Army for a humiliating and terrifying forced labour for 13 years. We have been agitating for justice and now the Jammu and Kashmir Police has confirmed that we were being...