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NHRC sends notices to JK govt, home and defence ministry

Annapurna Jha in New Delhi

Taking suo-motu cognisance of a news report about the disappearance of thousands of people in the Kashmir valley during the past decade, the National Human Rights Commission has issued notices to the Jammu and Kashmir government and the Union home and defence ministries seeking their reports in the matter.

NHRC sources said Thursday the commission has issued notices to the state chief secretary and director general of police, and the secretaries of the Union home and defence ministries asking them to reply within eight weeks.

A national daily quoting the Association of the Parents of Disappeared Persons had reported that over 2,000 people have disappeared since 1989 after they were allegedly picked up by security forces.

Since APDP's address was not mentioned, the commission asked the Jammu and Kashmir chief secretary to serve a notice to the association requesting it to produce a copy of the list of missing persons and any other material ''to enable the commission to take further steps.''

The association, formed in 1994, by relatives of the missing persons who met in courts, comprises mainly poor, uneducated women many who had stepped out of their homes for the first time. They go to the security officials, police stations, politicians, courts and prisons in different parts of the country in search of their sons, fathers and husbands.

The APDP alleges that the law enforcing agencies arrest people during raids, routine patrolling and search operations. When the relatives of arrested persons approach the security officials they are assured that their relatives would be released soon. But that never happens. After a few visits, the relatives are told that the people they are looking for were never arrested.

In desperation, they approach other security officials and move applications to civil authorities and politicians who seem equally helpless, the report said and added that the local police authorities almost never file an FIR against the security forces.

The fallout of these disappearances is mainly economical as mostly it is the earning member of the family who goes missing.

However, it also has corrosive psychological impact in the form of constant agony and trans-generational trauma which leads to various physiological and psychological disorders, the report said quoting a psychologist working with the victims.

UNI

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