In a shocking incident in Kashmir’s Sopore, a 60-year-old civilian was killed in the cross-firing when an encounter broke out between militants and security forces on Wednesday morning. The 60-year-old was killed right in front of his three-year-old grandson after which heartbreaking pictures of the boy sitting on his grandfather's dead body surfaced on the internet.
After the pictures and the videos went viral, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah slammed the "men in uniform" for filming the inconsolably crying child which they rescued. "We would have expected no less from the men in uniform than to rescue the young boy & for that they have our gratitude but we would expect better than for them to film & use a three-year-old’s pain the way it’s being done today," he tweeted. "Everything becomes a propaganda tool in the bloody violence in Kashmir," he added.
Later in the day, Amnesty India- a human rights organisation, took to Twitter and said that Kashmir Police violated the Juvenile Justice Act by disclosing the identity of the child. "By disclosing the identity of a minor witness of a crime, Kashmir Zone Police (@KashmirPolice) stands in violation of Article 74 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015," they wrote.
"It is also a breach of the “best interests of the child” principle as required to be the basis of any action by the authorities under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which India is a state party," Amnesty added.
However, the human rights organisation was called out on Twitter as Twitterati posted a screenshot of their previous tweet wherein the picture of a 19-month-old child (who was a victim) was disclosed. "Offered without comments," wrote Yashwant Deshmukh, Founder-Director, CVoter International. "Hippocracy of Amnesty India(sic)," wrote a Twitter user.
What does the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 say?
According to the Section 74 Prohibition on disclosure of identity of children, "No report in any newspaper, magazine, news-sheet or audio-visual media or other forms of communication regarding any inquiry or investigation or judicial procedure, shall disclose the name, address or school or any other particular, which may lead to the identification of a child in conflict with law or a child in need of care and protection or a child victim or witness of a crime, involved in such matter, under any other law for the time being in force, nor shall the picture of any such child be published."
