International Day of Disappearance Observed in Kashmir

Photos &Text  : Faisal Magray

Members of Association of Parents of Disappeared Person(APDP) marked the International Day of Disappeared Persons by observing a sit in protest at Pratap Park in Srinagar.  For the last 24 Years familymembers of the victims subject to Enforced disappearances at the hands of Indian Forces in Kashmir have been fighting a the battle in search of the disappeared.

The Members of Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) carried and placards and photographs of their missing relatives and appealed the government to find the disappeared cases. Victims from different parts of the Valley came to join the protest and demanded the authorites to find the whereabouts of their disappeared cases.

According to APDP some 8000-10000 people have been subjected to enforce Disappearance since 1989 in Kashmir, the year the armed uprising started in Kashmir. The International Day of the Disappeared on August 30 is a day created to draw attention to the fate of individuals imprisoned at places and under poor conditions unknown to their relatives and or legal representatives.

This International Disappearance Day for the first time witnessed artists from the region participating in day-long silent protests. Kashmir has seen a rise in the number of artists portraying resistance in the form of paintings and art forms.

Presently, the human rights issues top the concern list for the people living here. Among the worst sufferers of human rights violations in Kashmir are those whose husbands and sons have gone missing after their arrests by security forces.

Parveena Ahanger founder of the Association of Parents of Disappeared People supported by lawyers and human rights activists in Kashmir says that“We condemn ad express grief over the recent incidents of loss of human lives in Kistwar and also the incident of killings of four persons in Gool Ramban. We also express concern over the disappearance of two persons in mysterious circumstances on 9th August in Kishtwar,”

In late March 2011, Amnesty International (AI) released a report claiming that the state of Jammu and Kashmir was holding hundreds of people without charge or trial in order to keep them out of circulation.

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights established the working group in 1980 to assist families in determining the fate and whereabouts of disappeared relatives. India signed the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance in February 2007.

 The APDP also oraganised events across different states of India including JNU campus New Delhi, Azim Premji University Bangalore  and Tata Institute of Social sciences(TISS) Mumbai.

Each month, hundreds of women, young and old, gather in Pratab Park to protest against the disappeared. These women seek information about their loved ones that went missing years ago now, after they were taken away by government forces during the past two decades of turmoil in the region, which claimed lives of tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians.