By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Srinagar: Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) staged a silent sit-in at Pratap Park here, against what it termed as state and union governments’ negligent approach towards tracing out their family members, subjected to enforced disappearance since 1989 across the state.
The family members of the disappeared youth, mostly females, during their silent-sit in at Pratap Park on Friday, castigated the successive governments for being indifferent towards their pain and agony.
“Neither National Conference nor PDP did anything for our children, to trace our missing loved one,” said an elderly woman, whose son, she claimed, was picked by Border Security Forces during a crackdown 19 years ago. Since then, she claims, she doesn’t know where he is.
Wearing white head bands with names of disappeared people written in black, the relatives participated in APDP’s proposed sit-in programme to draw attention of the newly formed government and the media to seek information about their loved ones, who have vanished, presumed dead or imprisoned without trial or record.
The family members of the disappeared persons alleged that their dear ones have been subjected to enforced disappearances by the Indian forces and their related agencies from their homes, streets and even roads.
They vowed to continue their struggle till both the state and the central governments accepted their demand of impartial probe into the enforced disappearances and custodial killings.
Parveena Ahangar, APDP chairperson, said the main aim of their protest is to make the world community aware of the plight of people of Kashmir. “We want to draw the attention of international rights groups for intervening and mounting pressure on India to provide whereabouts of our missing family members,” she said.
She said that despite being a signatory to the international conventions against human rights violations, India seems less bothered to deliver justice to those families whose loved ones were arrested and then subjected to enforced disappearances by security agencies here.
Ahangar, whose son Javid Ahmed is missing for last 24 years, added that “from Shopian, Pathribal to Macchil, intimidation of eyewitnesses, fudging of DNA samples and complete denial of the involvement of the Indian Armed Forces in such crimes have been the tactics that the state has continuously employed to shield the perpetrators.”
She demanded that India must comply with its obligations under international human rights laws. She said the state must consider the recommendations of Universal Periodic Review-2 (UPR-2) and ratify the International Convention for Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance, besides repealing Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).
(With inputs from CNS)
[Photos courtesy : Azaan Shah]