Srinagar: In occupied Kashmir, the Chairman of Hurriyat forum, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, has deplored the criminal silence of world human rights bodies over custodial disappearance of thousands of innocent youth by Indian forces in the territory during the past twenty eight years.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq in a statement issued in connection with the International Day of the Disappeared observed on Wednesday said that more than ten thousand civilians had been subjected to enforced disappearances in occupied Kashmir since 1989 by the Indian forces.
“For thousands of families the trauma and grief of this great inhuman act continues, as they do not know where their loved ones are or what was done with them. Most among them keep waiting with the hope that someday they will return. Mothers and fathers wait for their sons and children for their fathers while thousands of women have been turned into half widows waiting for their husbands,†he said.
The Mirwaiz said that enforced disappearance was one of the worst forms of oppression and inhumanity that the people of Kashmir were subjected to and the tragedy that befell these families was beyond words. He demanded justice for the enforced disappeared and their families and said that the puppet authorities should make public their details. He said that the family members of the disappeared continued to stage peaceful protests with a hope that international and Indian human rights bodies will listen to their pleas to trace their loved ones. He maintained that people of Kashmir share the grief of these families and salute their resilience and courage and will always remember the disappeared.
The forum Chairman said that on the other hand, there were 8,000 unnamed graves in Kashmir which was result of grave war crimes committed by Indian forces in the territory. He said that occupied Kashmir was world’s highest militarized zone where unabated human rights violations occurred each day over the past almost three decades but the irony was that the world human rights bodies had been watching all this as mere spectators.
The Mirwaiz said that Kashmir was an internationally-recognized dispute with several resolutions pending in the UN for its settlement. He said that the Indian forces’ personnel operating in occupied Kashmir under the protection of black laws carried out the killing of Kashmiris knowing that they would not be held accountable for their crimes.
The Mirwaiz said that the Kashmiri people were bearing the brunt of oppression in their fight for their basic political right and justice while the international bodies continued to remain silent over the worst forms of human rights violations in occupied Kashmir which was very unfortunate.