Nazir Masoodi
SRINAGAR Aug 30: More than 500 families of missing persons in Jammu and Kashmir have filed cases before the state Human rights panel seeking that DNA tests be conducted on the thousands of unmarked graves in northern Kashmir.
This comes after the Jammu & Kashmir government refused to exhume bodies in unmarked graves and carry out DNA profiling to ascertain their identity.
The state government told the human rights panel that their investigations concluded that all the people buried in unmarked graves are terrorists – both local and foreign militants.
But what has shocked the relatives of missing citizens is that the government has offered no proof, not even photographs of those buried in these graves to corroborate their conclusion.
Last year, an investigation team of the state Human Rights Commission, after a three-year probe, had found out more than 2000 unmarked graves in north Kashmir, rekindling hopes of families of people who had gone missing in the Valley.
Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah had supported the call for Truth & Reconcilliation Commission and the DNA profiling of bodies in thousands of unmarked graves in state and has asked relatives of people who have disappeared to give blood samples to see if there is a match with bodies buried in these graves.
However on Tuesday, The 28 page report submitted by the government has put onus on victim’s families to identify the graves of their missing relatives and only then government would exhume the bodies and carry out DNA tests and profiling.
Relatives say this is an impossible task.
Over the years, thousands of people have disappeared in Jammu and Kashmir, never to be seen again and human rights activists allege that many of these people were eliminated after they taken into custody and may well have been buried in unmarked graves. They have sought that these graves be dug up so that DNA samples can be matched to those from the families of missing people.
The state Human Rights Commission had also recommended the formation of an independent and structured body to look into all aspects of unmarked graves in the state.
(The author is NDTV Correspondent)
