H N Wanchoo, a retired civil servant and former communist trade unionist, was shot dead on 5 December 1992 in a suburb of Srinagar. AI is concerned about reports suggesting that he may have been extrajudicially executed because he was one of the most vocal human rights activists in Kashmir. The government claims that he was killed by militants. Mr Wanchoo was one of the few remaining Hindu leaders in the Kashmir valley and had become well known for documenting many alleged violations by the security forces in recent years. He had met the AI delegation which visited India recently and had told them that most of his petitions to the High Court were consistently ignored.
