News
Monday, August 22, 2011
Over 2,000 found buried in IHK’s unmarked graves: report* Indian government’s commission urges DNA profiling to identify the bodies, saying the matter should be ‘investigated thoroughly by an impartial agency’
SRINAGAR: Over 2,000 unidentified bodies have been buried in scores of unmarked graves in Indian Kashmir, according to the state human rights commission in the region roiled by a separatist insurgency.
Its report comes amid accusations that at least some of the bodies may be those of civilians who “disappeared” after being arrested by security forces fighting rebels in the Muslim-majority region.
“It is beyond doubt that unmarked graves containing unidentified bodies do exist at various places in north Kashmir,” said the report by the commission, established by the government in 1997 to investigate human rights violations.
The report — following a three-year investigation launched amid allegations of rights abuses by the army, paramilitary and police — is the first official acknowledgment that civilians killed in the two-decade conflict may have been buried in unmarked graves.
It stops short of confirming that suspicion, long alleged by rights groups, but says “there is every possibility that ... various unmarked graves at 38 places of north Kashmir may contain the dead bodies of locals.” 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 the remains of civilians who “disappeared” as Indian security forces battled the insurgency.
The IPT says 8,000 people have gone missing there during 20 years of rebellion against rule from New Delhi, most of those after they were arrested by security personnel.
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. The commission’s report said that of 2,730 unidentified bodies handed over to local residents by police for burial over the years, 574 were later identified as locals by their relatives.
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.
Separately, a clip was posted on the video-sharing site You Tube purportedly showing Indian troops in Kashmir shooting at an injured militant trapped by the debris of a fallen building. Notes posted with the clip said the footage dated from July 8, when a gunbattle broke out between a militant holed up in a house and Indian troops backed by counter-insurgency police.
It claimed the fighting in southern Pulwama district left the house damaged and debris fell on the militant, who called for help. The post alleged that the militant was fired upon rather than being arrested.
Indian army spokesman JS Brar told reporters that the man, Ehsan Bhai, was a “foreign terrorist who was trying to inflict casualties on security forces even in that (trapped) state”. “He had a grenade in his hand and tried to carry out a fidayeen (suicide) type of attack on security forces,” Brar said.
“He was killed in the retaliatory action.” Three Indian police and an army officer were arrested this month in Kashmir in separate investigations into the death of a man in custody and an allegedly faked gunbattle. agencies
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk