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[home]>[programmes]>[campaigns]>disappearances
in Kashmir
Campaign for Justice & Relief for Victims of Enforced
Disappearances in Kashmir
SAFHR is part of a national and international campaign to focus
attention on Enforced Disappearances and Impunity in Jammu and Kashmir.
It has joined Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) as a
complainant before the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and its
legal team is documenting cases of disappearances to strengthen the case
of APDP.
While many human rights groups and civil society organisations of
Jammu and Kashmir have been engaged in documenting enforced
disappearances, there has been little progress in building a nation wide
campaign for acknowledgment and accountability of this heinous practice.
The Indian authorities deny the claims of family members of the victims
of disappearances. As the security personnel in Jammu and Kashmir
operate under special laws like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, the
Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) and the Public Safety Act that give
them impunity and the activities of the security forces are shrouded in
secrecy, it has been a formidable task for human rights activists and
the victims’ families to establish the truth about enforced
disappearances in Jammu and Kashmir.
APDP, SAFHR and many other groups in Kashmir have submitted several
petitions to the authorities in Jammu and Kashmir seeking information
about the disappeared and also asking for an end to this heinous
practice. While the central and state governments in the past have
accepted some of these facts and at times responsible ministers of the
governments have also given numbers of the victims of enforced
disappearance, the government in general and the security forces in
particular have remained most evasive while responding to specific
allegations. Replies range from, “our soldiers were not involved in the
arrest.”, “there is no record of such an operation” and “ the so-called
disappeared person was a terrorist and is living in Pakistan”.
In May 2003, the National Human Rights Commission for the first time
took formal note of the complaints of the APDP after several activists
sat on a hunger strike in Srinagar. The NHRC ordered the government of
Jammu and Kashmir, the central government and the security agencies to
respond to the complaints of APDP. It also asked the state government to
set up a proper procedure for registration of the complaints of the
victims’ families and initiate investigation. While this intervention by
NHRC created some pressure on the state government, the central
government and the security forces protected by the provisions of
impunity in the special laws, continue to ignore the directives of the
NHRC. In fact the army and other security agencies have flatly denied
the charges.
The Campaign is supported by Amnesty International. In August 2003
several country chapters of Amnesty International in Europe, Canada and
South East Asia held symbolic protest hunger strike outside the
diplomatic missions of India against the practice of impunity and
enforced disappearances.
SAFHR has joined the APDP’s complaint before the NHRC. SAFHR has
investigated 179 cases of enforced disappearances in Kashmir during the
period from 1993-2002. A detailed dossier on these cases is being
finalized by SAFHR legal documentation team. This will be submitted to
NHRC to strengthen the case of APDP. This dossier will be used as a
resource to support an intensive campaign in J&K and the rest of India.
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