SRINAGAR: Parveena Ahanger searched for her son for 16 years in graveyards, security camps, and police stations across the held Kashmir.
“But all in vain. I am sure he lies buried somewhere without the last rites,” the 48-year-old said, as tears rolled down her face.
Ahanger said any doubt about her son’s death had dissipated after police exhumed five bodies in Kashmir two weeks ago, including a carpenter, a street vendor and Muslim priest.
All five disappeared last year.
Families say they were innocent people, murdered on the outskirts of Srinagar in what have been dubbed “fake encounters” – staged gunbattles where police claim to have killed suspected militants.
“Now I am sure that my son and others who disappeared were killed in fake encounters,” she said.
Javid Ahmad Ahanger was 17 when he went missing.
The killings have thrown a spotlight on thousands of people who human rights groups say have disappeared since a revolt against Indian rule broke out in 1989.
The public outcry about the latest cases has forced the police to instigate a rare probe into the conduct of their own forces. Eight policemen, including two senior officers, have been arrested and accused of killing the five people.
But it may be too late to appease many angry Kashmiri Muslims, who feel they have been never been accepted or treated fairly by the rest of mainly Hindu India.
“The recent disclosures may further alienate Kashmiris from India,” said Noor Ahmad Baba, head of Kashmir University’s political science department.
The verdant valleys and snow-capped peaks of Kashmir have witnessed continuous bloodshed since Muslim militants took up arms against Indian rule in 1989.
“Give us at least bodies of our loved ones so that we can give them a decent Islamic burial,” whispered Ahanger, who last week joined Mohammad Yasin Malik, a senior Kashmiri leader, in a three-day fast in protest at the killings.
“I want to kiss the remains of my dear son, at least tell me where he lies buried,” cried 75-year-old Saja, whose son disappeared in Kupwara district 11 years ago.—Reuters
