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Journalism of Courage
Taking serious note of the vexed issue of disappearances from J-K, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) today sought within six weeks the information from the state government on the steps taken so far and system established to address it.
The NHRC also pointed out the confusing and unrelated figures of missing people given out by the government and the Association of Parents of disappeared persons (APDP) on different occasions.
As against the publicised number of 2,000 missing, the APDP had given a list of only 365 missing people to the NHRC. The commission, which took suo motu cognizance of the matter in 2000 and has been keeping in touch with the government since, said ‘‘in order to proceed with the maximum care and coherence on this vexed issue’’, it considers that the information should be asked by the state Chief Secretary. A copy was sent to Defence and Home ministry.
Chairman Dr Justice Adarsh Sen Anand called a special meeting of the commission to discuss the issue. Pointing out the doublespeak by the APDP, the NHRC said inspite of repeated reminders, the NGO had not been able to give details of more cases.
‘‘The commission notes that a variety of figures are being mentioned in respect of enforced disappearances (read custodial killings). These range from the specific list of 365 earlier communicated by the APDP to the commission in April 2001 to ‘‘more than 8,000’’ that are mentioned in the APDP statement of 14 April, 2003, to various statements reportedly made in the Legislative Assembly of J-K from time to time — the figure of 3,184 reportedly having been mentioned by then Home minister on July 18, 2002.’’
The Amnesty International and several international human rights groups have been castigating India for ‘‘disappearances’’ — a euphemism for custodial killings by the security forces and Army in J-K.
The commission has asked the government to inform whether it has a system to record allegations of enforced or involuntary disappearances and, if so, the nature of that system, the number of such allegations recorded by it, the details of the systems established thus far to investigate such allegations and the results, thus far, of such investigations.
According to an NHRC spokesperson, the commission had been informed that Army was involved in only 85 allegations made by the APDP. The J-K government had sent comments on 93 cases.
