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| ‘No disappeared person has returned from Pakistan till date’ | | HM's amnesty package | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
Jammu, Aug 20: Union Home Minister's amnesty to youth desirous of coming back from Pakistan administered Kashmir and other parts of Pakistan was welcomed by the public. Scores of youth have already returned under the amnesty package. After brief interrogation they were allowed to go home. It, however, has exposed the claims of the government viz-a-viz enforced disappearances.
The government has been saying that the youth shown in the list of disappeared persons by human rights groups had gone to Pakistan to seek arms training. But till date not a single person shown in such lists has returned.
According to the Association of the Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) 8000-10,000 persons have been subjected to enforced disappearance since 1989. The government vehemently contests this figure. A series of contradictory statements have been issued by successive state governments. Amid these claims and counterclaims truth has become a casualty and one is forced to believe that the government is hiding something. On May 2, 2008 Omar Abdullah said 4000 Kashmiris were subjected to enforced disappearance by the state since 1990. Former home Minister, Khalid Najeeb Soharwardy issued a statement on July 18,2002. He admitted 3184 custodial disappearances since 1989. Another statement was issued by the former Chief Minister, Mufti Muhammad Sayed on February 25,2003. "During 2000, 1553 persons disappeared in the state, 1586 in 2001 and 605 in 2002", he informed the assembly. This was followed by former law minister, Muzaffar Husain Beig's statement on March 25, 2003. He told the assembly that 3744 persons had disappeared out of whom 135 had been declared dead up to June 2002. Ghulam Nabi Azad informed the legislative assembly during zero hour in March 2006 that 693 cases of custodial disappearances had been registered. His deputy, Muzaffar Husain Beig informed the assembly on August 1, 2006 that sixty persons had disappeared during National Conference rule. On August 4, 2006 Azad told the legislators that 33 custodial disappearances had taken place since 1990-1996. On the next day (August 5) he said 60 persons were subjected to custodial disappearance since 1995-2006. These contradictory statements reflect that the government has been desperately trying to conceal the truth. In response to a list issued by APDP a few years ago, the police said that most of the persons in the list had crossed over to Pakistan administered Kashmir to seek arms training. According to Yasin Malik of Zandfaran, Baramulla, "If the disappeared persons are in Pakistan as claimed by the officials they must return now as New Delhi has granted amnesty to them." Malik is an executive member of the APDP. "The government will find itself in a very difficult situation if the `disappeared persons' do not return to their respective places in the coming days. |
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