NEW DEHLI: More than 2,000 corpses have
been found buried in several unmarked graves in Indian-administered
Kashmir, believed to be victims of the disputed region’s separatist
movement, a government human rights commission said in a report.
The graves were found in dozens of
villages near the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border between
Pakistan and India in the Himalayan region.
“At 38 places visited in north Kashmir,
there were 2,156 unidentified dead bodies buried in unmarked graves,”
the inquiry report by the Indian government’s Jammu and Kashmir State
Human Rights Commission (J&KSHRC) said. The commission was
established by the government in 1997 to investigate human rights
violations.
The report — prepared by an 11-member
team headed by a senior police superintendent — said that DNA profiling
should be used to match unidentified bodies with relatives to resolve
the controversy. “The scope for DNA extraction from remains of these
unidentified bodies buried in unmarked graves of north Kashmir is still
very bright. As the time will go on… chances will be more and more
reduced,” the report said.
An independent group based in Srinagar,
the International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice (IPT),
had in 2009 documented unidentified bodies buried in the region’s
northern villages.
Indian and international rights groups
called for a probe into whether the unmarked graves held bodies of
civilians who have ‘disappeared’ as Indian security forces struggled to
contain insurgency in the region.
The IPT says 8,000 people have gone
missing there during 20 years of insurgency against rule from New
Delhi, most of those after they were arrested by Indian security
personnel.
The Association of Parents of
Disappeared Persons (APDP), which estimates around 10,000 people went
missing during nearly two decades of separatist revolt, says many
missing people may have ended up in these unmarked graves.
“We appeal to international human
rights groups and Indian authorities to identify the people buried,”
said Parveena Ahanger, founder and chairperson of the APDP.
International human rights groups have also repeatedly asked the Indian authorities to investigate the unmarked graves.
Indian officials have repeatedly
claimed that those buried in unmarked graves were militants — most of
those Pakistanis — who were killed in clashes with security forces.
They also argue that many of the missing locals had meanwhile crossed
to Pakistan to join militant groups. Nearly 50,000 people have been
killed in mainly Muslim Kashmir since an insurgency against New Delhi’s
rule began in 1989.
On Saturday, Indian soldier shot dead 12 “militants trying to cross from Pakistan into the disputed region.”
Indian security forces in Kashmir have
been accused of murdering innocent civilians in staged gun battles and
passing them off as militants to earn rewards and promotions.
Source ; Column.pk
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