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| PDP, Congress back home, Police call bluff of nameless graves | | | Early Times Reporter
Jammu | July 12
It was around January this year that the issue of nameless graves broke up in Kashmir and assumed such proportions that it came for a heated debate even in the European Parliament but the Jammu and Kashmir Police never spoke on the issue.
Reasons were obvious –one coalition partner (Peoples Democratic Party) wanted the Police to endorse these reports while other (the Congress) desired that Police should vehemently deny any such thing in these graves of north Kashmir. However, adopting a procession approach the Police top brass rather preferred to maintain silence instead of falling in the political trap.
Now since it has come out of the political pressure, the Police have today called the bluff of these nameless graves asserting that all militant lay buried there. Taken exception to reports of unknown graves in Districts Baramulla and Kupwara a police statement issued this evening said that on seeing the opportunity, some anti-national elements and interested groups have jumped into the scene by issuing statements and creating confusion in the minds of people.
The statement clarifies that immediately after such reports appeared in the newspapers, an exercise was carried out by the Police. In Sub-Division Uri, 202 graves (97 in Bijhama, 75 in Boniyar and 30 in Uri) have been identified as those belonging to militants including foreigners, killed during action. These cases have been supported by necessary records in the form of FIR spelling out the date and place of occurrence, name of counter insurgency unit involved in action and reference whether militant was identified or otherwise, are available and the burials were carried out by the locals of the area.
The statement further says, “All of us know that it is not possible to identify each and every militant killed as often happens in all such encounters. However, in some cases it was possible to establish the identity of militants killed--through word of mouth, identity cards, communication between militants or through media. 15 such persons thus identified as local militants were even exhumed and handed over to their legal heirs. However, the fact remains that many militants were of foreign origin mostly known by their code/fake names. So the question of identifying them by any one, either by the Government agency or independent agency becomes a mute point. However, despite undertaking the exercise of establishing the identity of un-named graves in right earnest, it remains a fact that there is generally no tradition of putting any inscription on grave-stones in rural areas except the affluent sections of the society and wherever there are community graveyards particularly the city of Srinagar”.
It further adds, “The Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) has been leveling allegations of such sort every now and then. In the past an exercise was conducted with regard to disappeared persons on the basis of information provided by APDP. It was found that a majority of them were cases of voluntary or motivated disappearance who had joined militant ranks. About a score of them were found present at their homes. In some cases, it could not be stated with authority whether they were dead or alive as it is a known fact that many such youth are still across in Pakistan/POK after receiving training in subversion, who are eager to return back and many individual and organizations have been pleading their cases”.
The department has expressed concern over the misinformation campaign launched by persons having interests inimical to the security, sovereignty and integrity of the nation and requests all concerned, to exercise extreme caution and application of mind while reacting to such un-established claims made for vested interests. If the APDP has any specific information into the matter, it is welcome to share the same so that transparent verification process could be initiated, the statement adds. |
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