In India-held Kashmir, missing men revive fears of 'disappearances'
DARDPORA: On a freezing winter's day in a remote village of India-held Kashmir, Begum Jan and her 10 children huddle around a wood burner inside their dimly-lit home, worried about the fate of their missing father.
The 42-year-old labourer has been missing since November and his family fears he may have been taken by the Indian army, whose presence in the occupied Himalayan territory many locals resent.
Jan, 38, says she has no hope of her husband returning.
“If the army has taken him, they must have killed him,” she told AFP, her children sobbing in the background.
Indian government forces deployed in Kashmir region have for decades faced charges of killing locals in faked gun battles to claim cash rewards and win promotion.
Rights groups say as many as 8,000 people, mostly young men, were “disappeared” in India-held Kashmir from 1989, when an armed insurgency against Indian rule erupted in the Muslim-majority region.
The has been a sharp decline in such cases in the past decade but fresh incidents continue to be reported.