Indian Express: Jammu & Kashmir: Saturday, June 02, 2012.
After the Jammu & Kashmir Human Rights Commission, the state police has disclosed that it has registered 2,683 FIRs about unidentified bodies in unmarked graves in three districts of north Kashmir. This number is 500 more than the figure given by the state human rights commission.
The disclosure was made in response to an RTI application filed by the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) and International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Indian Administered Kashmir (IPTK).
“These are damning disclosures,” Khuram Parvez of IPTK said. “This shows how the state has been sitting on this information for many years, and trying to obfuscate the truth.”
The J&K Police has said that of the 2,683 FIRs, the largest number 492 were registered at Handwara police station. This was followed by Kupwara (396), Trehgam (326), Lalpora (298) and Vilgam (155). All these police stations are in Kupwara district.
In Baramulla district, 110 FIRs have been registered in Sopore police station, and 103 in Baramulla.
The number of unidentified bodies given by the police is 527 more than what was revealed in an independent investigation by the SHRC, which was first reported by The Indian Express last year.
The response under the RTI Act came after the J&K Police’s Criminal Investigation Department refused to give information to IPTK.
“(The) disclosure of information sought would be prejudicial to the maintenance of public peace and tranquility as the anti-national elements may use the same for incitement...,” the CID had said.
The IPTK has now approached the SHRC seeking a fresh investigation into all these FIRs.
“We urge the SHRC to order a re-investigation into these 2,683 FIRs... and order the J&K Police to provide all the FIRs relating to those buried in unmarked graves from the remaining 17 districts...,” IPTK has said in its petition.
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