Report by Wasim Khalid in Srinagar
In August, the remains of more than 2000 bodies scattered throughout 38 graveyards were uncovered in four districts in Indian controlled Kashmir.  The discovery has shocked even the conflict-weary Kashmiris.

Since the discovery of the graves, Kashmir Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, has repeatedly called for the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in an effort to start healing the still raw wounds of a decades long conflict in Kashmir.

Since Partition in 1947, the northern state of Kashmir has been the cause of three wars between India and Pakistan.  And both countries have also used proxy fighters and methods for more covert battles in the region.

Shock but not a surprise

The discovery of the mass graves in the northern part of the state have been a shock, but not a surprise for Kashmiris.  Almost every person from the valley knows of someone who has “disappeared” in the last twenty years. 

Last year, the bodies of three young men were found near the Line of Control.  The army claimed they were insurgents from over the border, but investigations proved them to be local boys who had had no part in any military activity. 

According to the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), more than 10,000 people have been “disappeared” during the course of the last two decades.

Human rights groups have long claimed that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and other legal provisions of impunity in place in Kashmir have been used to cover up a range of human rights abuses on the civilian population by the military.  And many ordinary Kashmiris hold the Indian army and Jammu and Kashmir Police responsible for most of the disappearances.  However Indian authorities deny any accusations of torturing or killing their detainees, and say they only arrest insurgents.

The State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has called for an inquiry into the mass graves.  It has also asked the government to match DNA found from the remains in the mass graves with that of the families of disappeared persons.  If such a process were to take place, it could unlock the mysteries that have dominated the lives of people like Bilqis Manzoor for years.

A father disappeared

Bilqis has been trying for nearly a decade to trace the whereabouts of her father.  Manzoor Ahmad Dar, was picked up by the army from their home just outside of Srinagar in 2002. 

“I have full hope that my father is alive. And we have not yet seen his body,” said the soft-spoken Bilqis.
She wants DNA tests to be conducted on the unidentified bodies found in the mass graves.   “It would at least confirm the identity of those buried in the graves. Who knows?  Some of them could be people who were forcibly disappeared.”  Kashmir is littered with families who have spent years trying to find out the fate of their missing fathers, sons and brothers.

For these broken and wounded families, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission is not enough compensation for their trauma and loss.

“I have struggled throughout these 10 years. I have fought in the court, visited army camps, and prisons in Kashmir and in India, just to trace out my father,” said Bilqis with visible anger. “How can one even think I would reconcile with the accused. What was my father’s sin? He was an ordinary chemist and he was sleeping at home when soldiers barged into the house and picked him up.”
 

T&R Commission just another excuse?

Khurram Parvez is from a leading Kahsmiri human rights group, The Coalition of Civil Societies.  He too is opposed to the government’s proposal of a Truth and Reconciliation Commisssion because he feels that it’s just another term for letting those who committed crimes off the hook. 

“If the government books and arrests people for disappearances, rape, and other crimes in India, why don’t they do it in Kashmir. A T&R Commission would just be a continuation of impunity,” he says.   

Dr Sheikh Showket Hussein, a professor of law at Kashmir University, said the ‘state instruments’ have so far failed to address the abuse of human rights in Kashmir. He believes that state sponsored or state appointed mechanisms like the proposed TRC is not enough. Instead, a first step in conciliation could lie in how the situation of the mass graves is handled.

“The best credible investigation into the graves issue would be a probe led by an impartial international agency,” said Dr Hussein.   

Kashmir littered with graveyards
Kashmiri human rights groups are asking for a widening of the investigations.  “The investigations by SHRC so far have been conducted in four  districts and only in 38 graveyards. But these unmarked graves and mass graves exist throughout Jammu and Kashmir,” said Khuram Pervez.

Because of pressure from international and local human rights groups, the SHRC will announce on September 16th whether to extend the investigations into the unidentified graves in other districts of the state or not.