Several Thousand Traceless Disappeared In Kashmir

Several thousand traceless disappeared in Kashmir.

Dec 23, 2017

My another story published in Norway based international newspaper.

Here is the link to the original story.

https://www.bistandsaktuelt.no/nyheter/2017/forsvinninger-i-indisk-kashmir/

Here is the Google translated version of story.

Several thousand traceless disappeared in Kashmir.
Several thousands of people have disappeared in Indian-administered Kashmir during the last 27 years of conflict, according to human rights organizations. Most disappearances are not even registered at local police stations.
By Javaid Naikoo:

In the capital Srinagar, families gather together until they missed each month as a silent protest, and to remind their loved ones.

Most of these families have given up hope to see their relatives again. For years, they have tried to provide information about where they have become, without luck.

On the UN International Human Rights Day, December 10, people were faced with an extra large number. Local organizations had encouraged people to participate in a protest march at the local UN office. Local authorities in Srinagar responded to closing off parts of the city.

8000 disappeared
More than 8,000 people have been “disappeared” by Indian forces since 1989, informs Parvez Imroz, a well-known human rights activist and leader in the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) organization.

The organization tries to map the extent of disappearances.

– There are as many as 7000 nameless and unmarked graves and mass graves in the areas of Baramulla, Kupwara, Poonch and Rajouri in Jammu and Kashmir, says Imroz.

Families protest
Prisoners of people who have “disappeared” have been looking for both police stations and cemeteries, but have not been able to find information about where they were missing.

The state human rights commission, the SHRC, demanded that local authorities give an explanation after the authorities in a public report in 2012 acknowledged that there were 2080 unmarked graves in the border areas of Poonch and Rajouri. Civil Society Alliance JKCCS claims that the number of unmarked graves in these areas is about twice as high.

Alternative report
The son of the 60-year-old Parveena Ahangar disappeared in 1990. Ahangar has gathered the families of people who have been “disappeared” in the organization APDP, the Association of Parents of Disappeared People.

JKCCS and the parent organization APDP recently presented an alternative report to the official Indian report on the human rights situation in the country. The organizations want the issues of disappearances to be addressed by UN specialists researchers.

The two organizations have repeatedly raised the issue of debate at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. In 2008, they also brought the case to the European Parliament, which adopted a resolution on mass graves and the safety of human rights activists in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Want a review
The state human rights commission demanded on November 3 that local authorities within six months submit a comprehensive report on the 2080 unmarked tombs in the Poonch and Rajouri areas. Local authorities must conduct thorough forensic investigations, including DNA tests, of all tombs within six months, requiring the commission.

The last order is in line with the 2011 Human Rights Commission’s ruling. Then the Commission examined 38 cemeteries and found 2730 unidentified graves. Of these, 574 were later identified as local people from Jammu and Kashmir, despite being buried as ” foreign militants” .

The most important requirement of relatives of people who have disappeared is the creation of an official investigation commission to investigate all forced disappearances since 1989. The goal is for the truth to finally come to the table.