Families of disappeared pay tribute to loved ones
The families of victims of enforced disappearances on Saturday remembered their dear ones at a series of rallies in Kashmir, coinciding with the International Day of the Disappeared. The day was observed also by holding seminars, debates and discussions across the Valley where, according to local human rights groups, more than 8,000 people have fallen victim to involuntary disappearances during the past two- and- ahalf decades of turmoil.
The Omar Abdullah government had in 2009 acknowledged only 3,421 such cases but said many of the people who went into “missing” might have crossed over to Pakistanoccupied Kashmir to receive arms training or escape law on the Indian side of the Line of Control. Earlier in 2005, the Mufti Sayeed- led PDPCongress coalition government had admitted to 3,931 people having gone missing till that year.
In a Srinagar hotel, the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons ( APDP) organised a function at which speakers criticised India over its alleged poor human rights record in Jammu and Kashmir and being “apathetic” to the plight of the families of the victims of enforced disappearances. The APDP says it has been pursuing the cases of more than 8,000 people who have fallen victim of involuntary disappearances in the state following outbreak of insurgency in 1989 and the government’s responding to it with an iron hand.
“But the government and its so- called security forces and various official agencies have been giving cold shoulder and are not moved even by the pathetic condition of the families and other dependent of the victims especially what we call are thousands of half- widows who are not sure if their husbands are alive or dead after their reported arrest by men in olive and khaki,” alleged Khurram Parvez, coordinator of Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society.
He added that it was possible that many of the vic- tims of enforced disappearances might be lying in over 7,000 unmarked graves it has found in five district of the state. “In fact, in most cases where exhumations have taken place, it has been found that the disappeared persons were killed in fake encounters and buried as foreign militants in unmarked graves,” he said.
The relatives of the disappeared have, however, rejected the idea of presuming them dead. “It will put an end to the struggle against involuntary disappearances,” said Parvena Ahangar, who heads the APDP faction.