Kashmir group demands Nepal-like laws for enforced disappearances

Srinagar, Thursday, February 29, 2008:

The Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) Thursday asked Indian administered Kashmir government to enact Nepal-like laws that include Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (EID) as "criminal offence".

The APDP, an association of parents of disappeared persons in Kashmir, staged a sit-in protest at Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian administered Kashmir, seeking to know the whereabouts of their dear ones.

“Although the disappearances in Nepal are eight times less than Kashmir, the Supreme Court of Nepal has directed the Nepali government to enact laws with respect to reduction in enforced disappearances and further directed the government to establish a separate commission for its inquiry," said APDP spokesman Ghulam Nabi Mir.

The Supreme Court of Nepal has directed the Nepali government to frame and implement an appropriate relief package including employment to the families of people subjected to enforced disappearances.

Mir said that the region’s government should in a similar manner take immediate steps to stop enforced disappearances and provide relief and employment to the families of the disappeared in Kashmir.

He said that the Government of India is one of the four Asian countries to have signed the United Nation Convention for protection of all persons from Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances.

Human rights groups in Kashmir put the figures of disappearances in the region at over 10,000.

However the region’s government and New Delhi have not yet acknowledged the phenomenon of disappearances.

“New Delhi gives ambiguous and deceiving statements relating to EID from time to time," Mir said.

Naseema, whose brother Hamid was lifted by the 28 Rashtriya Rifles force of the Indian army on December 29, 1995 while he was coming out of a mosque after offering prayers said, “I have been following my brother's case for the past 12 years. So far I haven't got any clue about him.”

Hamid’s whereabouts are not known till date.

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