SRINAGAR, March 28: Human rights workers have found the graves of nearly 1,000 unidentified people scattered in cemeteries across an isolated region of occupied Kashmir, a prominent human rights group said on Friday, saying some of them may hold the bodies of innocent people killed by security forces.

Researchers from the Association of Parents of Disappeared People found the graves during a yearlong survey in the region around the town of Uri, one of the most violent parts of occupied Kashmir. Uri is near the Line of Control.

The association represents relatives of people who have disappeared since violence erupted in the insurgency-wracked Himalayan region 18 years ago.

While many of the graves are said to contain the bodies of unidentified militants, rights workers say the sheer number of graves in just one area, along with accounts from villagers, makes “a strong case for an independent international scientific investigation,” Pervez Imroz, the group’s lawyer, said at a press conference.

The group did not have the resources to exhume the bodies, he added.

The Indian army dismissed the report, with Lt-Col A.K. Mathur, an army spokesman in Srinagar, saying it was “designed to malign the security forces”.“We’re fighting militancy. We’re not involved in disappearances, custodial killings or any other form of (human rights) violations,” he said.

However, human rights workers have complained for years that innocent people have disappeared, killed by government forces in staged gunbattles, and suspected militants have been arrested and never heard from again. Rights groups say there have been an estimated 8,000-10,000 disappearances since the violence erupted.

Kashmir’s top elected official, Ghulam Nabi Azad, recently said only 1,017 people had disappeared, although in 2003 his predecessor put the number at about 4,000.

Last year, authorities charged seven policemen with murdering five civilians in staged gunbattles and trying to pass them off as foreign militants to claim rewards and earn promotions.—AP