Unmarked graves in Kashmir

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Police say 2,683 FIRs about unmarked graves in Kashmir registered

Srinagar, June 02 In Kashmir, after the human rights commission, now police have disclosed to have registered 2,683 FIRs about unidentified bodies in unmarked graves in three districts.

The number of FIRs registered by police is 500 more than the figure given by the human rights commission.

The disclosure was made in response to an RTI (right to access information) application filed by the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) and International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in the disputed territory.

“These are damning disclosures,” Khuram Parvez of IPTK said.

He said this shows how the authorities have been sitting on this information for many years, and trying to obfuscate the truth.” The police said that of the 2,683 FIRs, the largest number — 492 — were registered at Handwara police station. This was followed by Kupwara (396), Trehgam (326), Lalpora (298) and Vilgam (155). All these police stations are in Kupwara district.

In Baramulla district, 110 FIRs have been registered in Sopore police station, and 103 in Baramulla.

The number of unidentified bodies given by the police is 527 more than what was revealed in an independent investigation by the commission.

Human rights body demands probe on Kashmir mass graves

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Srinagar: September 16: Jammu and Kashmir Human Rights Commission (JKHRC) today recommended investigation by an independent "representative structured" body empowered to probe all aspects of unmarked graves in the Valley.

"An independent duly representative structured body having due credibility and weight, fully empowered to go in (to) all questions (and) aspects regarding unmarked graves, disappeared persons ... be constituted and put in place in time," a division bench of the JKHRC said.

The bench, comprising Chairperson Justice (retd) Syed Bashiruddin Ahmad and Member Javaid A Kawoos, in its six-point recommendation sought DNA profiling of the bodies in the unmarked graves in a cluster of villages at various places in north Kashmir's Baramulla, Bandipora and Kupwara districts.

The investigative wing of the JKHRC, on the instructions of the bench, had earlier reported that more than 2,000 unmarked graves existed "beyond doubt" at 38 sites across north Kashmir.

"The bodies in unmarked graves...shall be identified by all available means and techniques like DNA profile, physical description, dental examination, distinctive medical characteristics, finger prints, carbon dating and forensic pathology (as may be applicable), so that even the identity of dead, in these unmarked graves is possible with the claimed disappeared persons," the bench said.

The bench also recommended prosecution of those found involved in the perpetration of "crime" including culpable homicide.

Meanwhile, the JKHRC took cognisance of an application filed by Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), which claimed existence of over 3,844 unmarked graves at 208 sites in Poonch and Rajouri districts of Jammu region   
     

JKPL URGES UN, INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE

Srinagar, Oct 16: The Chairman of  Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Leauge (JKPL) Sheikh Yaqoob on Thursday urged the International Court of Justice and United Nations War Crimes Tribunal to initiate a probe into the unmarked and mass graves in the disputed state of Kashmir.

Sheikh Yaqoob   said during the past over two decades nearly 10,000 Kashmiris went missing in the custody of various agencies. “Unmarked and mass graves have been found in various areas of the Valley. We believe that most of the Kashmiris who have been subjected to enforced disappearance are buried in these unmarked and mass graves. We make a fervent appeal to the International Court of Justice and United Nations War Crimes Tribunal to send their teams to the Valley and initiate a through probe into the unmarked graves for unmasking the perpetrators and putting an end to killing of innocent Kashmiris,” Sheikh Yaqoob said.

Citing example of extra-judicial executions, Sheikh Yaqoob said in 2006, five people mostly from south Kashmir’s Islamabad district were killed in a fake encounter in Ganderbal for rewards and promotions by the Special Operations Group of Police and Army.

 “The case is only tip-of an ice-berg. In past two decades, the troopers turned Kashmir into killings fields by executing Kashmiris and burying their bodies in unmarked graves to suppress the movement for right to self-determination,” Sheikh Yaqoob  said.

Pertinently, last year the International Peoples’ Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice, a rights watchdog in its report ‘Buried Evidence: Unknown, Unmarked, and Mass Graves” had claimed to have to found 2700 unmarked and mass graves containing bodies of 2943 people across, 55 villages in north Kashmir.

“The graves include bodies of extra-judicial, summary and arbitrary executions, as well as massacres by the Indian military and paramilitary forces. Of these graves 2373 (87.9 percent) were unnamed. 154 contained two bodies each and 23 contained more than two bodies. Within these 23 graves, the number of bodies ranged from 3 to 17,” the report had stated.

Sheikh Yaqoob  maintained that panacea for all the problems of Kashmiris’ is demilitarization. “Till the troopers leave the State, Kashmiris will continue suffer, fathers will have to face the painful moment of shouldering coffins of their sons and playfields will turn into graveyards.”

Accusing India of exploiting natural resources of Kashmiris, Sheikh Yaqoob  said the power generated from Kashmir is supplied to other states. “While Kashmiris are left in lurch. Our forests and mountains are also being vandalized by troopers. I want to maintain that Kashmiris will feel sense of security when the troopers vacate the State,” he said. (Writer-South Asia)