SHRC directs police to consider enquiry into enforced disappearances into 639 cases

Srinagar, July 12: For twenty-four years, the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) and its individual members and volunteers has been campaigning against the phenomenon of enforced or involuntary disappearances in Jammu and Kashmir, wherein more than 8000 people have disappeared since 1989.

On Thursday, Jammu Kashmir State Human Rights Commission passed a crucial order directing Senior Superintendent of Police of the SHRC police wing to hold an enquiry, if necessary, into 132 cases of disappearance in Banihal Tehsil (Ramban district, Jammu division) and 507 cases of disappearance in Baramulla and Bandipora districts (Kashmir division) and file a report within three months.On 10 December 2011, APDP submitted a complaint of 132 cases of disappearance (by State, non-State and unknown) actors from different villages of Banihal tehsil, Ramban district.

By communication dated 2 May 2017, the police and civil administration in their reply admitted that 112 persons out of 132 persons were indeed “missing”, but contested the other cases. On 27 February 2018, APDP filed its rejoinder.

APDP submitted a separate complaint of 507 cases of disappearance (by State, non-State and unknown) actors from different villages of Baramulla (369 cases) and Bandipora (138 cases) districts. By separate communications the police and civil administration in their reply admitted that 186 persons out of 507 persons were indeed “missing”, but contested the other cases. On 3 July 2018, APDP filed its rejoinder.

“Todays order serves as an important milestone in the ongoing struggle of APDP to know the truth about the disappeared and to ensure justice for each and every person subject to enforced disappearance. Recently the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in its 14 June report noted the continued refusal of India to ratify the Convention against enforced disappearances and observed that “Impunity for enforced or involuntary disappearances in Kashmir continues as there has been little movement towards credibly investigating complaints, including into alleged sites of mass graves in the Kashmir Valley and Jammu region,” said an APDP spokesperson.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Kashmir Monitor staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)