Over 2,000 dead bodies haunt Omar Abdullah

Dead men have come alive to haunt the Omar Abdullah government.

An inquiry report into unmarked graves conducted by the SSP of the state human rights commission, Bashir Ahmad Yatoo, have detected that there are 2,156 unidentified bodies buried in 38 graveyards across five districts of north Kashmir.

This excludes 574 bodies that were buried as unidentified but later identified as those of locals. The probe has also found 18 mass graves and detected 20 charred bodies and five skulls.

“It is beyond doubt that unmarked graves containing unidentified bodies do exist in Kashmir… The government accounts for only 464 unidentified bodies but not for the remainder 1,692,” the report says. “There is every probability that these unidentified bodies may contain bodies of enforced disappearances,” the SHRC report said.

The enquiry report has also corroborated what the International People’s Tribunal (IPT) on Human Rights and Justice said in a report released in 2009. The IPT report documents 2,700 unknown, unmarked, and mass graves. It was based on research conducted from November 2006-November 2009.

“We stand vindicated. We hope Omar Abdullah will accept the SHRC recommendations,” said Khurram Parvez, Liaison IPTK and Programme Coordinator, Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society.