Annual Report 1999-2000 3.16 'ITie Commission carefully considered all of the submissions made before it and examined these in terms of the provisions of the Genocide Convention. It reached the conclusion that the primary 'intent' of the killers of both Hindus and Muslims in the Valley had been to try to achieve the secession of the State and its possible annexation by Pakistan, and that it had been to achieve this purpose, that they had been motivated to murder those whom they viewed as loyal to the Republic of India. In vieu- of this, the Commission expressed the opinion that the killings and 'ethnic cleansing' of the Kashmiri I^dits must be seen in the light of this deeper intent. In that context, the crimes committed against the Kashmiri Randits were, by any yardstick, deserving of the strongest condemnation, and there could be no gain in saying that the acute suffering and deprivation caused to them fell short against the stern definition of the Genocide Convention. The Commission was constrained to observe that while acts 'akin to genocide' had occurred in respect of the Kashmiri Pandits and that, indeed, in the minds and utterances of some of the militants a 'genocide-type design' may exist, 'the crimes against the Kashmiri Pandits, grave as they undoubtedly were, fell short of the "ultimate" crime: Genocide'. 'ITie Commission also considered it important to note that it had not, in the Proceedings in regard to this matter, entered into the killings and deep sufferings that had been borne by the Muslim community in the Valley in the course of the past years, as those were not the subject of the present Proceedings. However, the Commission expressed the belief that the time would come when peace would be restored to the Valley, and that the essence of that peace would be reconciliation and the restoration of that trust and tolerance that characterised the Valley for centuries and that gave to the term Kashminyat a meaning that was unique in the life of this nation. CUSTODIAL DEATH, RAPE AND TORTURE 3.17 TTie (;ommission had issued instnictions in 1993 that in the event of any death occurring in Jail or police custody, information has to be sent to the Commission within 24 hours. If this information were not received within the specified period, the Commission would presume that the authorities concerned were trying to suppress the facts on such deaths. 3.18 There has been a perceptible reduction in the number of deaths in judicial custody in the year 1999-2000. The number of such deaths during the period under review was 916 as compared to 1114 during the previous year, ie 1998-99. The number of deaths in police custody too has declined, but only marginally, from ISO in 1998-99 to 177 in 1999-2000. 3.19 The Commission notes that the number of deaths in police custody, as reported to it, has shown a decline in a number of States, the exceptions being Arunachal Pradesh, C»oa, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa, West Bengal, Andaman & Nicobar Islands 22