Srinagar : Voice of Victims (VOV) a human rights group on Friday said  that a total of 57 civilians were killed since April in the Kashmir valley.

In its report the VoV report claimed that during this period  two youth were also   crushed down by government forces vehicles.

VOV in the report stated that 165 people died during the last three months with 57 civilian killings, 67 militants and 40 troops of government forces in Kashmir.

“57 Kashmiri civilians were killed either by bullets or pellets fired by Indian government forces at various places of Kashmir near the encounter sights. The youth who were either watching the gunfights at a distance or protesting at the places of encounter were shot directly instead of warning shots or use of non lethal weapons. Shoot to kill was the main aim of government forces as suggested by hospital authorities because the youth mainly received bullets above the abdomen,” the report reads.

According to the report twenty people were killed on April 1 in three separate encounters in south Kashmir, ‘The dead included 13 militants, four civilians and four army men, the highest single-day casualty in the Valley in recent years, the report read.

The report says that human rights violations at the hands of government  forces and agencies backed by India have increased manifolds and killings by crushing under the forces vehicles are a vivid example of that.

The report while calling for a international probe in the mowing down of a youth Adil Ahmad Yadoo in Srinagar on 5 May reads that human rights violations in Kashmir are on a surge.

Executive Director Voice of Victims, Abdul Qadeer Dar  appealed the human rights organization  to look into the Kashmir issue very keenly and force India to stop the ‘reign of terror ‘in Jammu and Kashmir.