ABDUL Rashid Wani was stopped by Indian soldiers near his home in Srinagar in July 1997. He never returned. Nearly three decades later, a court has confirmed that he was murdered in military custody and that his body was disposed of. For Wani’s family, the ruling ends years of official denial but not the pain of never recovering his remains. For countless other families across India-held Kashmir, even this measure of acknowledgement has yet to arrive. Human rights groups estimate that around 8,000 people have disappeared since 1989, while investigations into thousands of unmarked graves identified years ago remain unfinished.

Wani’s death certificate closes one chapter. But what of the larger story? After New Delhi revoked Article 370 in 2019, the region was subjected to an unprecedented communications blackout, mass detentions and the dissolution of the Jammu and Kashmir Human Rights Commission before its work on alleged abuses could be completed. In 2020, three labourers killed in Shopian were presented as terrorists until an inquiry found that soldiers had exceeded their powers. The imprisonment of human rights defenders and journalists has deepened concerns over the narrowing space for independent scrutiny. Following the Pahalgam attack in April 2025, authorities again responded with sweeping detentions and the demolition of homes linked to alleged militants, prompting criticism from international rights groups over collective punishment and due process. All these events point to the same unresolved problem: extraordinary powers exercised with little independent oversight. Police have sought permission to prosecute security personnel in cases involving serious alleged abuses, yet such approval has never been granted. Wani’s case is therefore important not only because it records the fate of one missing man. It also exposes how difficult it remains for families in occupied Kashmir to obtain truth, accountability and, ultimately, closure.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2026