Kashmir separatist groups call for probe into graves

SRINAGAR — An alliance of Kashmiri separatist groups said yesterday it would move the International Court of Justice at The Hague to seek probe into the presence of hundreds of unmarked and mass graves claimed to have been discovered in the state recently.
"Kashmir Centres at Washington, Brussels and London have been asked to act. I think our representatives in Brussels will go to The Hague in a week's time to meet the officials of the International Court of Justice to request them take up the case," said chief Muslim cleric of Jammu & Kashmir Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who heads a faction of Hurriyat (freedom) Conference alliance.
Earlier yesterday, senior activists of the amalgam along with about 200 people staged a protest sit-in here. During the protest, the speakers urged the United Nations and various International human rights organisations to look into what they alleged is widespread violation of human rights in Jammu & Kashmir. "Indian troops are engaged in genocide of Kashmiris and in order to cover up their war crimes they fling the bodies of thousands of victims into such graves," alleged Syed Shabir Ahmed Shah.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International yesterday urged India to launch urgent investigations into the unmarked graves. “The grave sites are believed to contain the remains of victims of unlawful killings, enforced disappearances, torture and other abuses which occurred in the context of armed conflict persisting in the state since 1989," it said in a statement.
Last week, the Association of Parents of Disappeared People, or APDP, said it had discovered close to 1,000 'nameless' graves in 18 villages falling in Uri area close to the Line of Control.
The APDP claims that around 8,000 people have fallen victim to involuntary disappearances in the nearly two-decade-old insurgency and that some of them might be lying in these 'unmarked' graves.
However, army officials in Srinagar maintain that these are of "foreign militants" killed in clashes with Indian troops during or immediately after sneaking into their area from Pakistan over the years. They also allege that rebels have kidnapped and murdered people.