A human rights group in Indian Kashmir on Saturday said it had documented the cases of more than 1,400 people who were victims of “enforced disappearances” in the revolt-hit region. The group said it had submitted the list of 1,417 names to Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for an “independent and impartial” investigation. “This is a preliminary list of cases of enforced disappearances documented by us,” the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) said in a statement. The group says some 8,000 Kashmiri Muslims have disappeared since the insurgency against Indian rule erupted in 1989.
The list of missing was distributed at a protest at a park in Srinagar, summer capital of the Himalayan region.
Dozens of relatives carrying photographs of their missing kin attended the silent sit-in to support demands for an independent commission to probe the cases of the missing. “The process of documentation of all cases of enforced disappearances is an enormous task,” said the group. Indian officials dispute the figures of human rights groups about the number of people who have disappeared since 1989, putting it at around 3,900 people. Government officials say many of the missing crossed into neighbouring Pakistan to obtain weapons training and never returned. But the families insist their relatives were arrested by Indian security forces, who have broad powers of arrest, and were never released.
“We urge the government to inform the family members of the disappeared regarding the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones,” the group said. “The demand for appointing an independent investigation into the cases of enforced disappearances comes in the wake of the total failure of judicial and administrative mechanisms for redresssal,” the group added. Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, which have fought two wars over the disputed territory, each hold part of Kashmir but claim it in full.
