Home Department said there are 1,486 unmarked, unidentified graves in Poonch district
In a significant development, Jammu and Kashmir State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) upheld earlier orders directing the state to investigate and conduct the DNA test of the bodies in over 2,000 unmarked graves in Rajouri and Poonch districts of the Jammu division.
Replying to Association of Parent of Disappeared Persons (APDP)'s petition, SHRC chairman Justice (retd) Bilal Nazki said as the government has accepted that there are 2,080 unidentified graves in Poonch and Rajouri districts, the Commission has no hesitation to issue the same directions which were already issued in the earlier cases.
"The Home Department has already accepted there are 1,486 graves in Poonch which are unidentified and unmarked. And in Rajouri, it is admitted that there are 594 such graves. Apart from this, there are 1,351 other graves which are marked and identified," said Justice Nazki.
APDP in its petition had pleaded that thousands of the people were missing from Kashmir and they apprehended that these missing persons had been killed during the operations and buried in the graves without even identifying the bodies.
The SHRC directed the government for a comprehensive forensic examination, including DNA testing into all these graves in tune with the earlier orders passed in 2011.
"The DNA profile sampling techniques shall be supplemented by the present day modern scientific techniques, and methods facilitating and ensuring matching of the unidentified dead bodies in unmarked graves," the SHRC said.
Tahira Begum, spokesperson of APDP said the order is in line with the SHRC's 2011 judgment in which the Commission had found that in the 38 graveyards, which they have investigated, have documented 2730 graves, out of which 2156 graves are still unidentified graves, and 574 persons were later after being buried as foreign militants, identified as local residents of Jammu and Kashmir.
"Since 2011, instead of complying with the directions and recommendation of SHRC for investigation into all the unmarked graves, the government continued to avoid undertaking any such investigations on the pretext that the investigation would lead to a law and order problem in J&K and also argued government's inability in terms of expertise and infrastructure for such investigation", she said.
Tahira said the families of disappeared amid constant agony and distress have continuously been struggling for knowing the truth behind enforced disappearances in Jammu and Kashmir.
"APDP today reiterates that unlike past, the government of India, must initiate a comprehensive investigation into all the unknown, unmarked and mass graves discovered across Jammu and Kashmir, to ascertain the truth behind the enforced disappearance of more than 8000 people of Jammu and Kashmir", she said.
UNNAMED GRAVES
- Home Department said there are 1,486 unmarked, unidentified graves in Poonch district.
- The number of such graves in Rajouri is 594 according to data.
- Apart from this, there are 1,351 other such graves in the nearby area.
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