South Asia Human Rights Journalist Association

Srinagar, July 29 ,2018: The Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) has staged a sit-in at the Press Enclave in Srinagar to demand whereabouts of their beloved ones who went missing in custody of the Indian forces. The family of disappeared person Muqadam Bano, an aged woman from Zamboor Pattan, said that her husband and son went missing in forces’ custody on August 15, 1997. “The forces detained my husband and son along and they never returned,” she added.
A family from Delina area of Baramulla said one of their members, Manzoor Ahmed Mir, is missing in forces custody since 2003. 
The APDP spokesperson, Tahira Begum said the number of enforced disappearance in Kashmir is alarming. “More than 8,000 persons have been subjected to enforced or involuntary disappearances which is higher than most of the Asian countries. Despite less number of disappearance cases, many countries have constituted enquiry commissions to investigate the cases and have initiated certain processes for providing justice and reparations to the victims,” she said.  
‘On the contrary the Indian state continues to be in denial for investigating the crime of enforced disappearances and establishing a commission of enquiry despite recurrent appeals from APDP from more than two decades,” she added.
She said the countries even with less number of disappearances have allowed the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or involuntary Disappearance (UNWGEID) to visit these countries and gave them access to monitor the situation of enforced disappearances.