Probe demanded into Kashmir disappearances, mass graves
Syed Ali Safvi
Press TV, Indian-Controlled Kashmir
The distraught family members and relatives of those disappeared in the Indian-controlled Kashmir have demanded setting up of an independent commission to investigate cases of forced disappearance and unmarked graves in the restive Himalayan region.
Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons or A-P-D-P is a rights body spearheading the campaign for the people missing in Indian security forces' custody, has asked the state government to investigate more than 8000 cases of enforced disappearances and over 7000 unmarked mass graves.
According to human rights groups, there are thousands of unidentified graves dotting the Indian-controlled Kashmir landscape. They claim that many of the disappeared may have been buried in these unmarked graves. In 2011, the region's premier rights body State Human Rights Commission confirmed the presence of unmarked graves in 38 graveyards across North Kashmir, carrying over 2000 unidentified bodies.
Despite repeated requests by the commission, the government has refused the wide-scale DNA testing of bodies in these unmarked graves.
Human rights bodies, including the Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have time and again criticized India for its poor human rights record in the Indian-controlled Kashmir. However, Indian government refutes the allegation, saying that the charges of rights abuses are made to defame their forces.
The issue of unmarked graves has come back to haunt the newly-elected PDP-led government in the Indian-controlled Kashmir, which has in the past been vocal about the issue. However, observers believe with the right-wing BJP in picture, it looks unlikely that the government will investigate cases of enforced disappearance in the region.
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