57% of Kashmiris I Surveyed Know Someone Who Has “Disappeared”
It was during the Second World War that the concept of enforced disappearances first came to light. In Nazi Germany, Jews, Communists and Dissidents were often picked up by the secret police and in accordance with a decree issued by Adolf Hitler himself, were “disappeared”.
When enquiries were made about these people, it was claimed that they were arrested, but no further information was given.
Enforced disappearances are the secret imprisonment of individuals by the state, its authorities or political organisations, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the imprisonment or failure to provide information about the state of the individual.
Victims of enforced disappearances are often held in confinement, tortured or even killed. When used as a systematic attack against a civilian population, enforced disappearances constitute a crime against humanity.
A Familiar Territory Back Home
Back in 2011, the Jammu & Kashmir State Human Rights Commission claimed that many of the 2,165 unidentified bodies found in a mass grave in Northern Kashmir could belong to victims of enforced disappearances.
In 2005, more than 940 mass graves were found in Baramulla, pointing toward mass killings in the past. With the heavy presence of military personnel in Kashmir, as well as a large number of claims of kidnappings by state authorities in the region, custodial deaths and disappearances become a very real possibility.
According to the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), a body of the relatives of victims of enforced disappearances in Kashmir, more than 8,000 people have been “disappeared” in the region between 1989 and 2006.
The government, in turn, admits that 4,000 people have been victims of enforced disappearances.
Parveena Ahanger, whose son Javaid was one of the many victims of enforced disappearances, was one of the founding members of APDP and talks about the mournful lives of those whose loved ones were taken by Indian security forces or by unknown gunmen.
“When someone dies, he has a grave. His family sees his dead body, touches his face. At least there is emotional closure. But when your child is taken away and disappears, you don’t know what to do. You struggle between longing and hope.
“You don’t know where he is, what he is doing, or what happened to him. There is so much trauma, and so many storms rage inside you.” Indeed, these cases are more painful than death, as she says.
Parveena Ahanger was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.
Enforced Disappearances Used As A Weapon
According to human rights activist Parvez Imroz, “Enforced disappearances are a weapon of war. They are used to neutralise armed resistance against the state and their sympathisers.”
Apart from being a stain on the human rights situation of India and raising serious questions on the role of authorities in violence in Kashmir, such cases give rise to a large number of half-widows — women whose husbands have been victims of disappearances.
They, and their families, live in a tragic state, unaware of whether the disappeared person is even alive. Most of these women are excluded from property ownership, as patriarchal customs in the subcontinent claim that a woman shall get her rightful share only when her husband is declared dead.
More often than not, those disappeared by security forces are killed in staged encounters, a phenomenon which, according to state authorities, does not happen.
However, a number of military personnel have admitted to the army and security forces engaging in extrajudicial killings, on the condition of anonymity, to Human Rights Watch.
Socio-religious factors play a major role in these cases.
Paul D’Souza, in Economics and Political Weekly, talks about how 90% of victims hail from rural areas, making it difficult for them to avail legal help, with 99% of the victims being Muslim. Moreover, the article points out how 63% of those who “disappeared” were illiterate.
According to testimonials of “half-widows”, whose husbands have disappeared, 85% said that their husbands were not affiliated with any organisation, with only 9% claiming that their husbands had known links to militant organisations, raising doubts about government claims that many of the victims were militants.
Does Kashmir Need AFSPA?
In the course of doing research for this article, I surveyed a number of residents of Kashmir. The resulting data shows a bleak picture.
With an overwhelming majority of those surveyed being under the age of 30, it is shocking to see that more than 57% of them know someone whose relative or friend has been a victim of enforced disappearance.
Furthermore, more than 80% of those surveyed are of the opinion that Kashmir does not need the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act and that it promotes violence and discrimination against Kashmiris.
The Act has always been controversial and has been blamed for making it easy for authorities to disappear people.
It allows military personnel on duty in Kashmir to arrest anyone without a warrant, and provides officers with legal impunity for their actions, essentially allowing them to kidnap, torture or even kill people without having to face civil courts.
The result of this is that 77.2% of respondents had a negative perception of the Indian Armed Forces in J&K, while almost 75% had a negative perception of the judicial apparatus in the erstwhile state.
Yet another stark reminder of the status of democracy in Kashmir is that 82.9% of those surveyed believed that journalists in Kashmir do not have the freedom of expression and are not free to report on all incidents.
India is a signatory to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances and is bound to abide by its provisions.
The claims of Indian authorities engaging in enforced disappearances in Jammu & Kashmir is a matter of grave concern and undermines India’s status as a democracy by threatening its human rights record and raising doubts about the rule of law.
It is imperative for the Indian government to take concrete steps toward making sure that all such cases are investigated properly and adequate measures are taken to promote the return of Kashmir to normalcy.
This should start with the repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, as suggested by the United Nations, and the complete demilitarisation of the region, and starting the process of providing the Kashmiris with their political rights.
Featured images for representational purpose
This is the second part of the three-part series on ‘enforced disappearances and kidnappings by security forces in Indian administered Kashmir’ as a part of the Justicemakers’ Writer’s Training Program, run in partnership with Agami and Ashoka’s Law For All Initiative. The first and third parts can be found here and here.
