SRINAGAR, April 7: Amnesty International on Monday urged India to launch an urgent inquiry into nearly 1,000 unmarked graves found in the rebellion-hit region of Indian occupied Kashmir during the past two years.

Amnesty wants the Indian government to determine if any of the graves contain the bodies of those listed as missing by local rights groups.

“Amnesty International urges the government of India to launch urgent investigations into hundreds of unidentified graves discovered since 2006 in Jammu and Kashmir,” Amnesty said.

“The investigation must be independent, impartial and follow international standards,” it said, urging the authorities to secure the grave sites “in order to preserve the evidence.”

Amnesty’s request came after a local group, the Association of Parents of Disappeared People, said last month it had found 940 “nameless graves” in 18 villages in Uri district of Kashmir.

“There are many more graves where the buried people have been claimed as foreign militants,” said the spokesman for the Association of Parents of Disappeared People, Pervez Imroz.

“During our fact-finding, villagers reported the bodies were in fact of Kashmiris and not foreign militants, as claimed by the security forces.” Police say 331 people have died in custody and another 111 have disappeared after being arrested since the insurgency erupted in Indian held Kashmir in 1989.

Indian security officials contend many of the missing had crossed over to Pakistan to join the insurgents and say the graves are those of freedom fighters killed in action.

Local human rights groups, however, say 8,000 people are missing, with the majority having been arrested by Indian security forces.

The rebellion has left more than 43,000 people dead by official count, while rights groups put the toll at 70,000 dead and disappeared.—AFP