Haamid Ansari
Srinagar, Feb 28: The Association of the Parents of Disappeared Persons, or APDP, held a protest demonstration here on Thursday demanding the recovery of their missing loved ones.
Hundreds of kin of missing persons assembled in the Sher-e-Kashmir Park this afternoon and staged a sit-in against the government.
They demanded that people missing in custody be immediately recovered so that they are rid of their mental agony.
One of the protestors, Gulshan, a woman from Gangbug, Tengpora, said that personnel of the elite 22 Rashtrya Rifles had arrested her son, Manzoor Ahmad, eleven years ago, but so far nothing was known about his fate.
“I knocked on the doors of the powers-that-be and visited every jail, but met nothing but failure,” she said.
Similarly, Ali Muhammad, said that the forces had arrested his son, Bilal Ahmad Sheikh, and then subjected him to disappearance in custody.
“I have struggled a lot to recover my son, but without success,” he said.
Another protestor, Zahoor Ahmad Mir of Pampore, said that the notorious counter insurgent leader, Papa Kishtwari, had subjected scores of ordinary citizens to custodial disappearance and later killed them. He said that his father, Ali Muhammad Mir, had met a similar fate at the hands of the Ikhwani who later flung the body into the Jhelum.
He said that Human Rights violations were continuing in the state, and if they were not halted forthwith, the situation could take a dangerous turn, and all responsibility would lie with the government.
Meanwhile, the APDP today lauded the ruling of the Nepal Supreme Court which calls for the immediate recovery of missing persons and formulating a comprehensive list of the disappeared. Haamid Ansari, The Cheers News
Haamid Ansari, 
Kashmir Missing
