Kashmir Unmarked Graves: UN Mediation

Guest Post By: Huma Sheikh

In August 2011, the unmarked graves atrocity came to light in Kashmir after the Jammu & Kashmir Human Rights Commission confirmed that more than two thousand bodies were buried in those graves in several districts of the Valley. The commission said many of the dead were civilians who had disappeared over the past two decades, the time of the bloodiest violence in Kashmir. The Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) —an association formed by parents and relatives of victims of enforced disappearances in Jammu and Kashmir— had in 2008 reported to the commission about the presence of unmarked graves, and about their fears that those unidentified bodies might be their missing children.

According to the commission report, 2,730 bodies were buried in thirty-eight sites in North Kashmir’s Baramulla, Bandipora, Handwara and Kupwara districts. Five hundred seventy four (574) among the 2,730 bodies were those of missing local Kashmiris.

The Jammu and Kashmir government had earlier said the bodies in unmarked graves were those of unidentified militants, most of them Pakistani insurgents who were handed over to local people for burial. After the commission report, Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said all missing persons were not buried in unmarked graves. Some of these people had been doing small businesses—either driving cabs or something else– across the Line of Control (LOC), the de facto border dividing Indian and Pakistani Kashmir. “I can say with authority that some of the persons buried in these unmarked graves were killed by militants,” Omar had told the Hindustan Times newspaper in India.

The issue of unmarked graves has become a major problem in the eight-decade-old conflict in Kashmir. People in Kashmir feel they are unsafe in the valley because of civilian disappearances by security forces and their subsequent killings in fake encounters to label them insurgents. The government, on the other hand, maintains the situation in Kashmir has improved and the Chief Minister established a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate unmarked graves. But this problem remains unresolved but can be resolved with the help of international third party mediation, or more precisely the United Nations mediation–mainly for two reasons:

1. The Kashmir conflict is a regional conflict because its resolution must include both India and Pakistan.

2. India is primarily Hindu and Pakistan is Muslim, and Kashmir, which is predominantly Muslim, is part of Hindu India. The UN was involved in the Kashmir conflict from 1948 to 1965 after India reported to the Security Council on January 1, 1948 under Article 35 (chapter VI) Pakistan’s involvement in aiding tribal invaders. Pakistan denied, however, having ever supported the tribal invaders. Several resolutions were passed by the UN during its 17-year-old active involvement in the conflict. But neither India nor Pakistan agreed to them.

The recent Kashmir conflict (1989), however, is not the same. It’s one of the most dangerous conflicts of the world having now killed over 70,000 people in Kashmir. The U.N mediation to resolve the Kashmir conflict is a necessity for the best interests of people in Kashmir, India, and Pakistan. Here’s why!

Background: Kashmir Conflict

The Kashmir conflict is principally a regional conflict dating back to 1947 when two states of Hindustan—India and Pakistan– were divided into two countries. Before 1947, Hindustan was ruled by Great Britain and Kashmir was one among 584 princely states not directly ruled by British Empire. Following Independence, the Hindu leader of the Muslim-majority Kashmir Hari Singh opted to accede to India as armed invaders from Pakistan were advancing on the Kashmir capital, Srinagar. According to the accession agreement, autonomy was promised to the people of Kashmir upon defeating the Pakistani invaders, autonomy to decide their future course of action i.e. whether to be part of India or Pakistan. This right to self-determination, has, however, always been bypassed by the Indian government. India and Pakistan have fought three wars over Kashmir since 1947. The two countries negotiated a Line of Control in 1971 dividing Indian and Pakistani Kashmir, but that border has always been restive.

The recent conflict— a secessionist movement— in Kashmir began in 1989 and has now killed over 70,000 Kashmiri Muslims, mostly civilians. The main demand of people in Kashmir is sovereignty and freedom (azadi) from India. This new wave of violence turned religious when minority Kashmiri Hindus left Kashmir in 1990. Kashmiri militants claim that Kashmiri Hindus left the state because it was the conspiracy of the Indian government so that it could without a hitch kill all Kashmiri Muslims in Kashmir. Kashmiri Hindus, on the other hand, claim that Kashmiri militants killed many of them, and they threatened them to try to move them out.

Similar Conflicts

Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-1995) was an ethnic conflict over the partition of Bosnia. Ethnic Muslim Croats and Bosnians wanted to secede from Yugoslavia. But most of the Serbs opposed this desire for independence. The war claimed around 100,000-110,000 lives.

In 1992, the UN mediated the conflict and established the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) to facilitate peacemaking in the region. To extend its mandate, it passed many resolutions over time such as more UN military involvement and allowing NATO air strikes against insurgent Bosnian Serbs. In October 1995, all parties agreed to a ceasefire that resulted in Dayton Peace Accords (DPA) in December, 1995.

Iran-Iraq (1980-1988) war lasted eight years over several border disputes, the most important being the Shatt al-Arab, the major waterway connecting the Persian Gulf with the Iranian ports of Khorramshahr and Abadan, and the Iraqi port of Basra. The war killed about one million people.

The eight-year old war between Iraqi Arabs and Iranian Persians came to an end in the summer of 1988 after UN resolution 598 was accepted by both the countries. According to the resolution, the UN supervised ceasefire was established and UN Iran-Iraq Observer Group (UNIMOG) created by the security General monitored the ceasefire. The resolution also included prisoner exchanges and pulling out of forces to internationally recognized boundaries.

Appropriateness of UN mediation in Kashmir conflict

The Kashmir conflict has essentially much in common with Iran-Iraq and Bosnian conflicts in regional and religious contexts, and it calls for the UN’s involvement in effectively resolving the issue. The continued UN involvement after 1965 would have prevented 1989 freedom movement in Kashmir. Now the unmarked graves issue may have repercussions for another bloodier war in Kashmir especially after the commission report confirmed the burial of 574 civilians in those graves.

Weaknesses and Strengths of UN Mediation

Weaknesses: The UN mediation is arbitrary. Decisions are based on agreement of conflicting parties. In other words, the problem of mediation is to get the conflicting parties to agree. In Kashmir, the UN resolution 47 on April 21, 1948 called for holding a UN-supervised plebiscite in the Valley among other things, but both India and Pakistan rejected it. India feared that Kashmiris might vote for Pakistan because of their same religious identity. Pakistan refused the resolution for fears that referendum might be rigged because the Prime Minister of then still autonomous Jammu & Kashmir– Sheikh Abdullah was an Indian ally.

Strengths: Arbitration insures a less formal setting to the mediation process. Unlike legal process, mediation compels the conflicting parties to change and see the common ground that can resolve the conflict. The UN is the most powerful international organization with 192 member countries from across the world. It can extend its mandate by passing several resolutions. For example in Bosnia & Herzegovina war, the UN passed several resolutions to extend its mandate that enabled UNPROFOR (United Nations Protection Force—to take control of Sarajevo airport in 1992 for humanitarian relief following fighting between Bosnian Croats and Bosnian Serbs over Bosnia’s referendum a month before.

The UN can also seek help from its member states, if necessary, to bring an end to the conflict. For example in 1995, UK and France—the two member states of the UN—supported NATO operations after the Sarajevo Markale market massacre and arrest of UNPROFOR forces by Bosnian Serbs.

Weaknesses and Strengths of war

Weaknesses: War results in the deaths of thousands of innocent people as well as widespread destruction of material and financial resources. Iran-Iraq war claimed lives of some five-hundred thousand to one million people and the financial cost was estimated at a minimum of $200 billion.

Strengths: War brings an end to the vexed conflict. People are willing to give in on ideological stances in order for the violence to stop because losses incurred in war are huge. In other words, war has the ability to bring about conclusion to the conflict because of casualties and costs. The winning country controls everything. There may be little negotiation. .

Weaknesses and Strengths of international law

Weaknesses: If a country is strong enough that it doesn’t care about the international law, then it doesn’t abide by the law. Example: When the US invaded Iraq the second time, it was against the UN mandate but the country could get away with it because of its superpower status.

Strengths: International law constricts countries (member states) in organizations such as the UN to abide by this law. This gives leverage to the UN because belligerents can be tried in the international criminal court. (ICC). Example: In Bosnia-Herzegovina conflict, the UN passed resolution 827 in May 1993 to create International Crimes Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to prosecute people responsible for serious violations of international Humanitarian law .

Weaknesses and Strengths of avoidance

Weaknesses: Avoidance is simply not addressing the problem as if it doesn’t exist. In some cases, the conflict may resolve itself with time or otherwise it may become a major problem. In case of Kashmir, avoidance is ignoring the reality of unmarked graves, human rights violations and thousands of people being killed.

Strengths: If conditions aren’t too violent or too extreme, time and changes in politics or world economy will resolve the problem peacefully without mediation, revolution, or military conflict. Any time a conflict is and will likely to continue to be violence-free, avoidance of violence might be one of the best solutions.

The Kashmir conflict is obviously too violent for the avoidance strategy. It is a major regional and religious conflict that has plagued not only people in Kashmir but also the two nuclear nations of India and Pakistan. India may be looking at the Kashmir conflict through the “strength of war” lens and assuming that Kashmiri people will eventually grow tired and give up violence. Pakistan, on the other hand, may be looking at the Kashmir conflict in the context of India’s weakness and hoping that its rival nation would finally leave Kashmir in favor of preserving its good reputation in the world as one of the fastest growing economies globally. But these assumptions are not valid and the continued large-scale violence in Kashmir proves it. The only resolution strategy for the Kashmir conflict is to develop an agreement that is mutually beneficial and will provide long lasting benefits to the people of Kashmir and India and Pakistan. This agreement should also help strengthen the ability of Kashmir as well as India and Pakistan to work together in the future. UN mediation is appropriate for the Kashmir conflict because neutrality is crucial to the UN’s record in peacemaking and peacekeeping and its final decisions are future-oriented and based on objective criteria. The UN recently expanded its peacemaking operations in regional conflicts. These services include provision of mediation services, good offices, and other forms of intermediary assistance; provision of fact-finding and observation commissions and the provision of humanitarian aid and assistance. India and Pakistan have not been able to resolve the Kashmir conflict since 1989. More importantly the conflict transformation since 1989 and its effects on the people of Kashmir and India and Pakistan—the two major nuclear powers— threaten the security of the whole world. In other words, this conflict makes it a world security problem— not just Kashmir and India-Pakistan conflict— and therefore makes it a prime candidate for UN mediation. UN mediation will enable the conflicting parties to work toward a sustainable agreement and bring about positive change in Kashmir as well as India-Pakistan and the rest of the world.

Mass Graves In Occupied Kashmir : A Matter Of Concern

The confirmation of unnamed mass graves by the Human Rights Commission in occupied Kashmir has sent shock waves across the globe. A report released after a probe by the investigation wing of the Commission revealed that it is beyond doubt that there are as many as 2156 unidentified bodies buried in unmarked graves at 38 sites in Baramulla, Bandipore, Handwara and Kupwara areas of North Kashmir. The report said that all these bodies with bullet injuries were handed over by the police to the local population for burial and were classified as unidentified militants (Mujahideen).

This is for the first time that any official body has made such disclosures. Earlier in 2008, the International Peoples' Tribunal on Kashmir in its report had disclosed the presence of such over 2700 graves across the occupied territory.

Subsequently, the European Parliament had passed a resolution on July 10, 2008, demanding of India to conduct an impartial and thorough probe into the matter to ascertain the identity of those buried in these graves but New Delhi is yet to respond to the demand.

All these graves are believed to contain the bodies of those who have been killed by Indian police and troops in fake encounters and in custody over the years. The disclosures have raised concern among the family members and relatives of those over ten thousand innocent Kashmiris who have been subjected to custodial disappearance by the occupation forces during the past 22 years about their safety.

As this report of the Commission is based on the verified findings of its own team of investigators there is nothing to question its authenticity but unfortunately, and to nobody's surprise, the first reaction of the puppet administration of the occupied territory was that the report was 'yet to be seen' by the concerned authorities. This kind of attitude speaks volumes about the seriousness of the authorities towards bringing the truth to fore.

Unfortunately, the people of Jammu and Kashmir have been facing the worst kind of Indian state terrorism for the past over sixty-four years just for challenging its illegal occupation of their soil. Indian troops under the protection of draconian laws like Armed Forces Special Powers Act, Public Safety Act and Disturbed Area Act had been committing gross human rights violations in the occupied territory to suppress the Kashmiris' just struggle for securing their inalienable right to self-determination. During the last two decades alone more than one hundred thousand Kashmiris have been killed, thousands have been disappeared in custody and hundreds of others continue to remain behind the bars for demanding this right.

The Hurriyet leadership and the human rights activists of the occupied territory in their reaction to the revelations have maintained that the discovery of the mass graves have vindicated their stand that the occupation forces are engaged in the genocide of the Kashmiris. The world rights bodies like the Amnesty International have also expressed concern over the matter demanding its impartial probe.

The civilized world cannot afford to ignore these shocking revelations. India should come forward and bring forth the facts by identification of the dead bodies. For this purpose it should start DNA testing without any delay as this method is used and acknowledged across the world and give exemplary punishment to the erring personnel. Moreover, it is also responsibility of the international community to impress upon New Delhi to fulfill its obligations towards the issue. It should also hold India accountable for committing war crimes in the occupied territory if any foul play is proved. If it is done, it will help in stopping the occurrence of such incidents in the territory in future.

Unmarked Graves Give Up Their Shameful Secrets

By: Ben Doherty

Every village has stories of men and boys taken from their homes and never seen again, writes Ben Doherty in northern Kashmir.

The police bring the bodies. In the day or night they bring them, wrapped loosely in blankets or in the clothes they wore. ''The bodies come in very bad condition,'' Nizar Ahmed Mir tells the Herald through an interpreter, standing on the steep slopes of the Shaheed cemetery at the end of a narrow dirt road. ''They are bloody, some are in handcuffs, the clothing is torn. Most have been shot in the face, or the face has been damaged, so they cannot be identified. We don't know who they are, we are just told to bury them.''

Nizar lives in the town of Kupwara, in northern Kashmir, on the edge of one of the most restive regions of the valley.

He farms for a living, but besides that, is one of the men the police come to with bodies. He is one of Kashmir's reluctant, but compelled, gravediggers.

Many of the bodies are incomplete, Nizar says, missing hands or limbs. Sometimes police just bring a head, handing it over with the same instruction: ''Bury this''. The dead are all men.

The police didn't kill them. The army did. The police are the intermediaries and they have as little information as they pass on.

''The police bring the bodies, they say: 'The army gave them to us, they are militants killed in gunfight'. But we don't know who they are. There are no documents and the police don't want questions.

''We cannot argue with the police; we do not ask who they were, or how they died. We just bury them, like we are told.''

It is true that some of the bodies are those of militant soldiers, killed resisting the Indian military and police presence around the disputed line of control between the Indian- and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

But every village in Kashmir carries stories of night-time invasions of homes by heavily armed soldiers, of men and boys taken away, never to be seen again, of people shot in the street and their deaths restaged to appear as though they occurred in battle. These are Kashmir's so-called ''fake encounters''.

Civil rights groups such as Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons estimate there are about 8000 men missing in Kashmir, disappeared over two decades of conflict. It appears now they might finally be found.

The bodies being uncovered in these graves are, almost certainly, those men. And for the first time, an Indian state government has admitted - albeit unwittingly and unwillingly - to Kashmir's worst-kept secret.

A leaked report by the State Human Rights Commission in Indian-controlled Kashmir has conceded ''it is beyond doubt that unmarked graves containing unidentified bodies do exist … in North Kashmir. There is every probability that these … graves … contain the bodies of enforced disappearances.''

The report said 2730 unidentified bodies had been found in Kashmiri soil and, through cursory efforts at identification, found that 574 of them were not foreign militants as claimed, but local men, killed and buried in secret. It has called for DNA testing of all of the unidentified bodies and said of government resistance to formal identification ''it has to be presumed the state wants to remain silent deliberately to hide the human rights violations''.

Built on a steep slope of land unusable for anything else, the Shaheed, the Urdu word for martyr, graveyard in Kupwara has only five graves that are marked with headstones. About a dozen more have small stone cairns pushed into the ground, some daubed with a painted number.

The number correlates only to the order a person was known to be buried.

While it appears there are about 20 bodies in the ground here, Nizar said there are more than 200 people buried in this narrow, steep wedge of land.

Some of the unmarked graves are apparent only because they have collapsed, leaving gaping holes. Of the others, there is no sign, and no record.

The Shaheed cemetery was full in less than three years, and bodies brought to Kupwara now are taken elsewhere.

About a kilometre away is Rigipura graveyard. It is also on a disused hillside, its graves packed in tight rows, a couple with names, more with numbers, but most completely unmarked save for the tell-tale disturbance of the earth.

Near a grove of walnut trees, the Herald is approached by a bricklayer who gives his name as Ghulam. He says that he, too, has been forced to bury bodies by police. ''Here,'' he walks to a bare patch of earth near the fence and points down.

''Here I had to bury a head. Two months before. No body. Just a head. I did not know who it was.''

He says all the bodies he has been made to bury have had their faces disfigured. None have been identifiable.

''Yes, I believe they are forced disappearances, the fake encounters.''

Publicly, at least, the government of Jammu and Kashmir is maintaining the bodies are those of militants killed in combat against the Indian military or as they tried to illegally cross the Line of Control into Pakistan to receive arms training.

The chief of army in Jammu and Kashmir, Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain, declined an interview with the Herald, but the Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, told the state assembly his government would investigate all the unmarked graves and has proposed a truth and reconciliation commission ''for the people of the state''.

But he warned that investigations would take time, and that the conflict in Kashmir was not black and white.

''We are not here to hide the facts or conceal the truth … but our endeavour is to dig out the facts and bring these before the public. This cannot be done overnight but we have to make a start in this direction.''

Mr Abdullah said it was unfair to blame security forces for all of the deaths in Kashmir.

''I can say with authority that some of the persons buried in these unmarked graves were killed by the militants,'' he said.

Mr Abdullah denied there were any mass graves in Kashmir. But his government's own human rights watchdog disagrees, and is damning of security forces.

The human rights commission accuses the police of falsifying claims about how people died, and says it found mass graves in the valley.

The commission's report also says there are almost certainly more secret gravesites in the valley.

Since 1988, the violence in Kashmir has claimed more than 43,000 lives.

Jana Begum knows the cost of those lost lives. Five of them belonged to her family.

In half a decade, she lost her husband and four sons to Kashmir's violence. Two of her sons were picked up by police in Kupwara. Eighteen days later she was told her sons were buried in the Rigipura cemetery.

Her husband was seized by authorities in a midnight raid and taken into custody. Six months later he emerged, so badly beaten he survived only one day at home.

''He was so unwell, he was unable to eat anything. We were feeding him milk in a spoon, but we could not stop him from dying. He died because of the interrogation,'' she said.

Another son was shot through an open window in the family home, while another simply vanished while he was studying at an Islamic school in Deoband. His body has never been found.

Jana Begum sits in the bare front room of her house.

Speaking barely above a whisper, she points out the bullet holes in the window frames. The same bullets, she says, took her son.

She holds a picture of the family she lost, and says she believes her family was targeted because her husband was an imam and her sons went to religious schools to study the Koran.

''The militants came to our house and demanded that my family join them, but they refused,'' she said. ''But people see the militants enter our home and they think we are working for them. We did not. We were never part of that. Not ever.''

The loss of the men in her family has left her destitute.

''During festivals like Eid, I go to Srinagar, to beg for money from people. I have no other way, no choice. My whole family is destroyed by these terrible incidents.''

Jana Begum has no interest in peace in the valley. She doesn't believe it will come, and she no longer cares.

''The people who did this, they took my sons and my husband,'' she said.

''I have no interest in anything they do now. They cannot give me my family back.''

How Do You Think Of A Mass Grave?

By Suhail Akram

When you think of a mass grave, what do you think? Do you think of it as a warm grassy patch of land in some distant meadow wedged between the lofty mountains with little or no tombstones and just rectangular pieces of clay protruding here and there numbered two hundred fifteen two hundred sixteen two hundred seventeen and so on and so forth…? Or do you think of it as a proper cemetery with regular clearly visible marble engraved names of unknown men on her hazy epitaphs? Something, I am sure must be coming to your mind. What is that?

When you think of a mass grave, do you feel the heaviness of the word mass? Do you weigh it in your hand? Does it choke you a bit? Do you know anyone personally who haplessly in broken whispers tells you that they fear one of their lost one’s might be in that mass grave? Do you know what do they think of a mass grave than what you think of a mass grave? What is the difference? Is there a difference? Who are in the mass graves, by the way?

When your parents said one day that you be around the house and that they are locking you from outside and that they will return in some time, did you feel the scary loneliness in the big house with fear of Djinnslurking there amidst the eerie silence? Or when your elder brother jokingly tried to bury you under the heavy weight of the big Cashmere quilt and it was black and breathless inside and you felt like dying of claustrophobia, or when you heard that you will get stitches on your knee wound you got when you hurt yourself while learning to ride bicycle, how exactly scary did you feel at those moments? Can you elaborate pain in twenty six letters? Can you draw a diagram with exact angles of a mass grave, forty degree here sixty degree there? Which compass will you use? How big will it be? Can you measure how frightened you get when you see a dead battered body, in kilos? How, in units of electricity, I am asking, terribly black and lonely must be it inside a mass grave?

When you think of a mass grave, do you get upset or angry or both? If someone just grabs you from behind, drags you to the nearest ground outside and forces your legs down into the ditch he has already dug for you and buries you half in and half out, how tragic and nonsense would it feel? Or what if , God forbid, he just buries you the other way round, half in and half out but the legs facing the sky and your head and shoulders and your arms buried quite ruthlessly in the ground, would not it be more tragic and more stupid and thus ultimately a more bizarre an affair which cost you your life? That is not done, is it? Why should you be grabbed in the first place? Is there no justice?

When you think of a mass grave, what exactly do you think of a mass grave? After you involuntarily draw a sad picture of a foggy mass grave in your mind, what do you do after that? Do you go to sleep? Or do you rush to have dinner? Or do you go to the toilet? What do you do after you bury the pictures of mass grave into your head? Do you also bury them just like that? Or do you swallow a two fifty milligram Paracetamol tablet?

Do you find it difficult to breathe when the old grave digger tells you the stories of the young men inside the mass graves? ‘There is somebody’s leg sandwiched between the skull and the feet of somebody else’s, sandwiched between the yellowy wormed leg bones of somebody else, all bullet ridden’ how does it feel, if he asks you? What crayons would you use to draw that on a canvas? Where would you buy those crayons?

How many old men are grave diggers? Who is the oldest grave digger? Where does he live? Are his hands different in texture and colour than what you know of hands of an old man? Can you measure the depth of that small wrinkle among many bigger wrinkles on his hand? How deep should be a wrinkle to qualify you to be a grave digger? If some wrinkles are so deep that they qualify to be a bruise or a fissure, do you get more stars, more points I mean? Are there little specks of black clay still trapped inside the rim of his finger nails? If he has a habit of eating his nails, is he also eating the soil of mass graves? Is it a sin to eat the soil of the mass graves? Are there any religious injunctions about it? What does religion speak about a mass grave?

re there any young men as grave diggers? Young men who in their twenties were forced to perform this drudgery, to dig the earth in the dark numbness of a dawn, hurriedly, as quickly as they can, while the soldiers kept vigil and area cordoned. And do these youngsters don faded jeans in the afternoon and nice T-shirts and go to colleges? During the lectures do their books vomit gnawing scenes of red rotten flesh squirming on the text pages here and there, page number two hundred fifteen page number two hundred sixteen, all in front of their eyes? Is their mind stuck with the haunting memories of the dawn and its burial? Do they want to focus on their books and study well? Why can’t they? How does it feel to think of someone inside a grave, leave aside a mass grave? And then how does it feel to think of many inside a common grave?

What handkerchief would you use to keep away the stink of the open mass graves, if they ever open them? Or would you just use the hem of your old Pherans’ sleeve? Would you manage to catch a glance of those small pieces of dried brown mud still smudged on the lower hem of the grave diggers’ Pheran sleeve? Would you tell him to wash it off? Or would you just tell him to curl it up because, unbeknown to him, the dirty hem is constantly getting dripped into his ovalish salt tea cup as he gingerly picks it up towards his hungry mouth?

How many grave diggers are there? How many mass graves are there? Are there any women grave diggers? How red and gory are the scenes in your head when he tells you how he had to bury only a mess of intestines and couple of teeth because the body was blown away? Do you want him to stop telling you all that because you feel it is gut churning? Do you plead, please stop, I can’t take it anymore? And does he look at you with surprise, eyes wide open, ‘If you have come here all the way to know the truth, see it, it doesn’t come easy. Have guts to face it. Truth is like my old shovel I dig the graves with. You got to be strong to hold it…?’ Does he say all this or you just imagine it?

What do you think of a mass grave when you think of a mass grave? Do you curse your helplessness or do you trust your vengeance when he tells you that sometimes he feels like burying himself with the dead itself, that he is tired and sick of all this and he wants to retire some day? What if he had boycotted from burying the dead, what would have happened to the dead then? If it was not for a mass grave, could it have been a more horrendous mound of flesh? Or just scattered pieces of flesh lying here and there, some charred some broken some torn away?

And do you thank him and tell him that his is a thankless unfortunate job? Or in a second thought you tell him, no a thankless but fortunate job, because otherwise it could well have been a horrendous mounds of flesh scattered through the meadows and mountains of Kashmir. How do you thank a grave digger? Do you smile at him? Or do you just shake his old wrinkled hand firmly with his hand cupped inside yours and your head sadly dropped in remorse? What is that you want to convey with this posture? And when you return from mass grave what do you do? Do you rush to have food because you have been hungry? Or do you go to sleep? Or do you go to a toilet? What do you do after you have heard the tales of graves and grave diggers’? Do you just walk, contemplating with measured steps ‘what the hell…’ or do you run? Or do you just walk because you can’t run since you are shy? What if, by now your friend, the grave digger had been shy? Would he have dug just a small ditch and left it there, unsure how to go ahead with his benumbed shivering hands? Who would have volunteered to dig the next grave? If there were none, who would have been dragged out to dig with apt geometrical precision a big fit for all mass grave of mass graves? Where could it thus be located? What beautiful flowers would innocently grow on its surface? What shall be the fragrance of those flowers? Who will measure the wafting fragrance of these flowers in the overwhelming stink of the dead beneath?

Shocking Brutalities in Kashmir

Guest Write up By: Sajjad Shaukat

The question of unmarked graves which shows shocking brutalities of Indian security forces in the Indian-Held Kashmir is appearing with more details which were concealed by New Delhi. In this respect, in its recent report which was also published by several Chinese newspapers, China’s leading News Agency Xinhua has unearthed more gruesome details on world-stunning unmarked graves in Poonch, in the Indian occupied Kashmir. While quoting reliable local sources, the report disclosed the statement of Sofi Aziz Joo, caretaker of a graveyard as saying, “Police and Army used to bring those bodies and direct me to bury them. The bodies were usually bullet-ridden, mutilated, faces disfigured and sometimes without limbs and heads.”Xinhua’s report said, “Burials are carried out quietly without involving the local people…burials of those killed by army and police usually stoke protests in the region against police and army with the demand of end to New Delhi’s rule.”

On September 27 this year Amnesty International said that lawmakers in Indian-held Kashmir should discuss the recent discovery of unnamed graves containing more than 2,000 bullet-riddled bodies and should demand an independent panel be set up to identify the bodies, noting the same recommendation made by the Jammu-Kashmir State Human Rights Commission which had yet to be acted upon. It repeatedly emphasised, indicating, “The state government must also ensure that all past and current allegations of enforced disappearances are promptly, thoroughly, independently and impartially investigated”, adding that anyone found responsible should be prosecuted

. It is notable that after widespread allegations of human rights abuses in the Indian occupied Kashmir by the army, paramilitary and police, a commission was set up in 1997. However, Indian Jammu and Kashmir State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has officially acknowledged in its report in August this year that innocent civilians killed in the two-decade conflict may have been buried in unmarked graves.

According to the report of the Indian commission, “Hundreds of unmarked graves in Kashmir hold more than 2,000 bullet-riddled bodies that may include innocent victims, despite police claims that they were militants fighting Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan territory.” Indian Commission’s report indicated, “2,156 unidentified bodies were found in mass graves in three northern mountainous regions, while 574 other bodies were found in the graves have been identified as local residents.

The probe said it noted 851 unknown bodies in Baramulla, 14 in Bandipore, 14 in Handwara and 1277 in Kupwara. While concealing actual details, it also acknowledged that few bodies were defaced, 20 were charred, five only had skulls remaining and there were at least 18 graves with more than one body each. Before this admission, Indian high officials have been emphasising that all these bodies were of militant fighters—claimed by police when they were handed over to villages for burial. While, rights groups have disclosed that more than 8,000 people have disappeared, accusing government forces of staging fake gunbattles to cover up killings. The groups also revealed that suspected rebels have been arrested and never heard from again. Notably, Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), which in March 2008 released a report, titled, “Facts Underground”, had indicated the presence of unidentified graves. The APDP, which estimates around 10,000 people went missing during last two decades, claims, “many missing people may have ended up in these unmarked graves.” In December 2009, another human rights group, the International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights had released a report claiming that unnamed graveyards “entomb bodies of those, murdered in fake encounters and arbitrary executions.” Earlier, on August 23, 2011, Amnesty International had said that the investigation of graves in three regions also needs to be widened to the entire Indian-held portion of Kashmir. It insisted, “All unmarked grave sites must be secured and investigations carried out by impartial forensic experts.” In fact, since 1989 when movement of liberation in the Indian-controlled Kashmir accelerated, more than 70,000 people have been killed by Indian forces and police. Indian security forces employed various techniques of ethnic cleansing such as unlawful confinement, kidnapping, sieges, curfews, shelling of civilians, the destruction of homes and mosques, rape, torture, beating etc. And these inhuman methods contunued till the death of innocent Kashmiris. Besides, a number of unarmed individutals were killed by the Indian military, para-military troops and police in the fake encounters. So unnamed graves include a majority of those Kashmiris who were tortured to death by the security forces or directly killed by the Indian secret agency RAW. It is of particular attention that on June 28, 2010, BBC reported, “Three men went missing in Indian-administered Kashmir in April…but some time later their bodies were discovered near the Line of Control…a senior officer of the Indian army had kidnapped them by offering them jobs as porters. The troops later informed the police that they had killed three militants. Kashmir’s law minister, Ali Mohammad Sagar says there have been several proven cases of fake encounters in the past 20 years.”

BBC explained, “There are hardliners in the Indian Army and intelligence agencies, who think that by raising the bogey of infiltration and gun battles near the border they can create terror among people and also put pressure on Pakistan.”

Over the 20 years of violence in Jammu and Kashmir, Human Rights Watch has documented numerous failures to ensure protection of human rights. It has called for the repeal of laws such as the Jammu and Kashmir Disturbed Areas Act, the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act and the Public Safety Act. These laws provide the armed forces with extraordinary powers to search, detain, and use lethal force, leading to numerous human rights violations. They also provide immunity for security forces. Prosecutions of security force personnel, even where the facts are well established, are rare. In the recent past, WikiLeaks have also pointed out the involvement of Indian Army in extrajudicial killings and other gross human rights violations in the Jammu and Kashmir. The related-cable has urged the US to secretly divert UN attention towards the genocide of innocent civilians at the hands of Indian forces. It seems that non-condemnation of these Indian acts of massive human rights violations by the so-called civilised international community has further encouraged New Delhi to step-up its brutalities on the armless Kashmiri masses. Indian authorities are not willing to talk with Kashmiri people on political grounds. India perhaps reached to a conclusion that only bullet is the right way of dealing with Kashmiris, demanding their right of self-determination. Surprisingly, Indian successive governments are trying to ignore the dynamics of the Kashmiris movement for the freedom from the Indian alien rule. Reliable sources suggest that India has partially withdrawn the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) which was introduced in 1990. But it has only been amended in black and white, because in practice, it continues as Indian armed forces have totally failed in crushing the liberation movement of kashmiris with perennial wave of state terrorism. There can be no lasting political settlement in Kashmir unless human rights abuses that have fueled the ongoing uprising are addressed. Surprisingly, despite the assurances by New Delhi and Indian-puppet regime of the Kashmir so as to take punitive action against the concerned security personale with a view to stoping humanitarian crisis in the occupied areas, there has been no policy change in the repressive activities of Indian security forces as schocking brutalities and human rights violations in Kashmir continue unabated.

Nevertheless, the Indian government’s disregard for human rights in Jammu and Kashmir means that in practice, people reportedly died in custody and the whereabouts of the disappeared persons continue to be unknown. Therefore, more unmarked graves could be discovered from the Indian-held Kashmir in furture as with the help of local people, various human rights organisations and media are making strenous efforts in this matter.

Exclusive: Mass graves found in south Kashmir too

Zubair Ahmad* points at the mud-covered graves. He is jittery - playing in his mind are flashbacks from the day in the mid-’90s when security forces handed over three charred half-bodies to the local Auqaf Committee for burial.

Ahmad, who was in his early 20s then, witnessed the burial, in the village graveyard, of unidentified bodies of alleged ‘militants’. The graveyard gradually became the resting place for more and more unidentified bodies brought there by the security forces.

“From the mid-’90s to the early 2000s, security forces and the police brought bodies in vans for burial in the graveyard,” he said. “Once, five boys who looked like they were teenagers were brought for burial.”

For several years, body bags continued to pour in until the graveyard was filled to capacity. The local Auquaf committee says there could be more than 70 unmarked graves in the cemetery.

“It used to be a village graveyard,” says Molvi Bashir Ahmed, the Mirwaiz of Jama Masjid and chairman of the central Auqaf Committee. “Since Bindu village is central in the Breng area, and the police station is nearby, the bodies were handed over to us. We, as Muslims, thought it was our religious duty and buried them in the local graveyard.”

Bindu is a strategically located, with Kishtwar in Jammu region on one side and Anantnag on the other.

“We were told that these bodies belonged to unidentified militants. But we did not know who they were. People from different areas, including Kishtwar, came to us enquiring whether any of their kin were buried in the graveyard. We referred them to the police station, telling them that cops might have photographs of the dead,” says Molvi Bashir.

South Kashmir has, so far, remained insulated from the unmarked graves controversy, even as north Kashmir remains in the limelight after the investigative wing of the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) found 2,156 unidentified bodies buried in 38 graveyards across three districts.

Jammu and Kashmir minister of state for home, Nasir Aslam Wani, said he will look into the matter of unmarked graves in south Kashmir. “I have to check this. Since you told me, I will look into this,” he said.

Defence spokesman Lt Col JS Brar refused to comment on this issue. Human rights groups say this only proves that no district is free from the unmarked graves. “The fact of the matter is that no district in Kashmir is free from unmarked graves,” said Khurram Parvez, Liaison International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice (IPT), and programme coordinator, Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society.

IPT had come out with a report titled ‘Buried Evidence’, documenting 2,700 unknown, unmarked, mass graves, containing 2,943 bodies, across 55 villages in Bandipora, Baramulla, and Kupwara districts of Kashmir. The report was based on research conducted from November 2006-November 2009.

The IPT report was the second, and comes on the heels of an Association of Parents of Disappeared People (APDP) report in 2008 about nameless graves. Titled ‘Facts Under Ground’, the report detailed 940 to 1,000 nameless graves of unidentified slain people.

“I remember chief minister Omar Abdullah telling people to come forward for DNA testing. But nobody came forward,” says Mustafa Kamaal, additional general secretary and spokesman of the ruling National Conference.

Now, 2,500 unidentified graves in Jammu

Even the dead would turn in their graves at such a startling revelation. Mail Today has found mass graves in Jammu's Poonch district where 2,500 unidentified bodies were buried by a lone gravedigger.

It is pertinent to note here that the state human rights commission (SHRC) had found in an inquiry over 2,100 unidentified bodies at 38 sites in the Kashmir Valley. The commission's report had come out last month.

But this is for the first time that graves unknown men have been identified in the Jammu region.

Sofi Aziz Joo - the lone gravedigger in this frontier town - claims that he has buried over 2,500 unidentified bodies, sometimes in mass graves, handed over to him by the police and the army.

The 90-year-old gravedigger said the bodies handed over to him by the Indian police and the Indian army were usually bullet-ridden, without limbs or mutilated. He also pointed out that most of the bodies had their faces disfigured beyond recognition.

Sofi used to bury the bodies, and sometimes only heads without any other part the body attached to it, in a graveyard opposite a small shrine near the army garrison. "The bodies would come anytime and burials were to be made without involving townsfolk for fear of provoking " anti- India" protests. So, I used to take the help of two labourers," he said.

None of the dead was known to him or his apprentices, he asserted.

"Once when the police brought 16 unidentified bodies and asked me to bury them, I along with a couple of labourers dug out a single grave to bury them all," said Sofi, pointing towards a raised ground in the graveyard, now covered by grass. "I don't remember the date. But I recall that the police said they were killed in Modpichae village," he said.

There are other mass graves in the graveyard too, he said and pointed out a grave which, according to him, has five bodies.

"They (the police) used to hand over bullet-ridden or disfigured bodies and tell me that they were militants killed by the army in gunfights," he said, when asked about the identity of the persons he buried.

He also pointed out that the faces of most of the bodies used to be mutilated beyond recognition. There have been times when Sofi buried only heads, without bodies, a process that he objected to later on.

"Over a period of time, it appeared fishy and I started refusing heads only. I started asking questions and demanded the full body," Sofi said. He recalled that once the police and the army handed him six heads for burial.

"It was the first time I was witnessing such a horror. I broke down," the gravedigger said. Moreover, Sofi was pressured to give in writing that he received six bodies.

Aslam Khan, a Thanamandi local, shows a grave of a person who was identified by his uncle.

THEY TOOK it in writing from me despite my protests. What could I have done?" In another instance, Sofi was asked to bury seven heads. "I wrapped the heads in shrouds and buried them. But, they took a receipt of seven bodies," he said. However, in the third such incident when the police came up with some 15 heads, Sofi protested. "I thought come what may, I will not do it anymore," he said. "Then they left."

Talking about the time during which he was burying all these bodies, Sofi said the police started giving him bodies with the beginning of militancy in Kashmir - a time when crossborder infiltration and exfiltration picked up. He recalled that he used to get one or two bodies everyday and unlike the Valley, in Poonch, no local was permitted to help him in the burial.

For each body Sofi received, he was supposed to put his signature on a foolscap paper, apparently a takeover. The police personnel, after handing over bodies to Sofi, would remain on guard until he completed the burial process.

The burials have cost Sofi around Rs1.85 lakh, maximum of which was spent on purchasing cloth for shrouds and remuneration to the labourers.

Deputy Commissioner Poonch Ajit Sahoo, did not see this correspondent, despite a prior appointment. Sahoo kept the correspondent waiting for two hours inside his office but did not come out to speak.

After the discovery of 2,156 unidentified bodies at 38 sites in the Valley, the SHRC had issued notices to the state government on a petition filed by the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), seeking investigation into the graveyards of Jammu division's Poonch and Rajouri districts.

Ironically, there are seven graves of policemen too in this graveyard but all of these bear a proper epitaph. The remaining are housing mysteries along with their dead.

Mass Grave of Sikhs Killed in November 1984 Discovered in Jammu

A Mass Grave has been discovered in District Reasi, Jammu & Kashmir where 16 Sikhs were mercilessly murdered by crushing their heads on November 1, 1984. The victims were inside Gurudwara Singh Sabha Talwara colony when the attackers came for them on November 1, 1984, dragged them out and murdered them by crushing their heads with stones and rocks.

According to the 26 years old FIR and other official documents excavated by AISSF and SFJ, 16 Sikhs who were attacked and killed on November 1, 1984 in Talwara Colony, Reasi, Jammu & Kashmir were mostly employees working at nearby Salar Dam. On November 1, 1984 , a group of attackers came to the Gurudwara Singh Sabha Talwara Colony where the victims had taken shelter. The attackers got hold of the victims and then tortured to death 16 of them by crushing and grinding their heads with rocks and stones.

AISSF & SFJ announced that they will file a writ petition before Jammu and Kashmir High Court against the Government’s inaction against killing of 16 deaths. It is a matter of grave concern that “despite the evidence and filing of FIR, the killing and murder of 16 Sikhs in Reasi Jammu was not even investigated let alone prosecuted”, stated attorney Gurpatwant Singh Pannun Legal Advisor to Sikhs For Justice

According to Karnail Singh Peermohammad President AISSF, not only the killing of Sikhs in Reasi was brutal and ruthless but the continuous denial of justice is also equally ruthless. Just like the case of Hondh-Chillar Mass Grave, AISSF and SFJ will also take action in the case of Reasi killing by approaching the High Court and by seeking justice for the Sikh victims, added Peermohammad.

AISSF and SFJ released the copies of F.I.R filed 26 years ago and the copies of other documents along with the list of the 16 Sikhs who were killed on November 1984 at Reasi, Jammu & Kashmir

List of Sikhs Killed:

(1) Ratan Singh Son Of Chetan Singh Foremen,Village Mastuana Post Of Badala Bangar,Gurdaspur, Punjab

(2) Mukhtyar Singh Son Of Preetam Singh Post Office Rosi Kehla Badala Bangar,Gurdaspur, Punjab

(3) Heera Singh Son Of Mukhtar Singh Jwala Flour Mil Bhai Gurnampura Street Shekhwa Wali Amritsar(Punjab)

(4) Ranjit Singh Son Of Sadu Singh Foreman.Village Bartiya Postoffice Raowal

agarh,Nagar Solan Himachal Pardesh

(5) Manjit Singh Son Of Sohan Singh Electricians Village Lidopur Post Office Kahnowal Gurdaspur(Punjab)

(6) Satnam Singh S/O Bachan Singh Telephone Inspector,Village Nawan,Post Office Babehali Gurdaspur(Punjab)

(7) Giyan Singh S/O Amar Singh Vill.Hargowala, Postoffice And Distt.Hoshairpur(Punjab)

(8) Rashpal Singh Vill.Mansak Distt Hoshairpur Punjab

(9) Tersaim Singh S/O Charan Singh Atwal,Vill And Distt Thahto Chak,Teh-Tarntarn,Distt Amritsar(Punjab)

(10) Beer Singh S/O Suriya Vill And Postoffice Galgalri,Distt Gurdaspur(Punjab)

(11) Resham Singh S/O Mohan Singh Vill And Teh-Nusapanna Dist- Hoshairpur(Punjab)

(12) Ratan Singh S/O Lal Singh Dyanpura Poatoffice Narula Gurdaspur

(13) Amar Singh S/O Ranjit Singh Vill And Post Office Raipur Madan,Tahal Bansal ,Dist-Himachal Pradesh

(14) Surinder Singh S/O Preetam Singh Matrala,Post Office Bahat Dist-Gurdaspur

(15) Bhupinder Singh S/O Jaswant Singh,Vill-Singhpura Baramulla(Kashmir)

(16) Janak Singh Poni Shayad Parakh Jammu