Youths taken into custody by security forces in the Kashmir Valley have gone missing. This constitutes a new genre of victims in the ongoing mayhem. Though various organisations have documented the number of such victims, the numbers vary widely enough to raise serious questions of credibility.

While victims disappear, their families grapple with the ruinous socio-economic fallout. Swinging between hope and despair, their agony and trauma knows no end. Sorrow of death can fade, but the uncertainty stemming from disappearance is much more tormenting. Sapping the energy one moment and feeding the hope the next, the festering blow afflicts the psyche of the kinsfolk rendering them nervous wrecks. Several families have turned into paupers while grieving and sobbing wives knock at every door that may offer hope.

The Kashmir Bar Association (KBA) has documented around 300 cases so far. But the KBA president, Mr. M.A. Rathore, believes that the victims are in the thousands because the disappearances from the countryside go unreported for fear of reprisals from the security forces, ignorance or because of a lack of communication.

A study entitled "Did they vanish in thin air?" by Zahir-ud-din, documents 66 cases of missing detainees. Amnesty International recently came out with a list of 148 which include 68 cases of disappearance in 1990, 14 in 1991, 44 in 1992, 2 in 1993, 16 in 1994 and 4 in 1995.

There are cases in which the youths taken into custody were charged for various reasons. Meetings with their relatives were arranged in interrogation centres at jails. However, they have subsequently vanished from the state's jails and interrogation centres. Ghulam Nabi Bhat, a shopkeeper was arrested on June 8th, 1992 from Hawal locality of Srinagar along with four others. Later all, except Bhat, were freed. His family met him in "Papa-2," the notorious interrogation and torture centre run by the Border Security Force (BSF) on June 13th last. But later, he could not be traced anywhere. His sister Maryam Begum is running between courts and the BSF Interrogation Centres to trace his whereabouts.

A Case In Point

Parveen Begum is a mother whose voice chokes-up, and tears well up in her eyes as she tells her story. Suddenly, as if that was not the case, she is back from the brink of hopelessness and radiates with a dazzling smile as she describes the recent injunction of the High Court directing punishment of a police officer who failed in completing the enquiry of her son's mysterious disappearance from the custody. A judicial probe conducted by a first class magistrate has established the case and identified three officers of the elite Black Cat (NSG) as being responsible for the arrest of Javed Ahmad Ahanger on August 18th, 1990. Ahanger could not be traced in any of the jails or interrogation centres within and outside the state.

"He was only sixteen," she explained, clutching Amnesty's recently released list of missing people. After the Black Cats drove him out of his Batamaloo home in a nocturnal police raid, initially the police confirmed the arrest and even issued a permission slip to his mother to meet Javed in custody. At one point she was told to hire a taxi to take him home. The police later submitted to the Court that "the state is not in a position to ascertain the whereabouts of missing persons nor can they be held responsible if he went underground or is stuck up in the neighbouring country." Following orders from Justice S.M. Razvi for a speedy probe in his case on October 31st, 1991, the Inquiry Officer identified three NSG officers responsible for the arrest of Javed. But before the judge could seek formal permission from the state to initiate criminal proceedings, he was shifted to another jurisdiction. The case lies in limbo. A subsequent police investigation ordered by the court is yet to be completed.

During these last seven years, Parveen visited almost all the jails and interrogation centres. She met almost everybody who matters from New Delhi to Srinagar. Her case was debated on the floor of the Indian Parliament and received so much attention that Javed's case is listed in all the human rights records. All in vain. The festering pain which distinguishes her from thousands of Kashmiri mothers revolves around her hopes of catching a glimpse of the boy, with the same unruly hair, long face, pudgy cheeks and bright sparkling eyes.

Sixty-year-old Mughlee is a picture of agony, pain, anger and also hope as she talks of her son Nazir Ahmad Teli, a school teacher with 15 years of service. On September 1st, 1990, he left for school and never returned. Her requests to the police yielded nothing. A divorced wife of an irresponsible husband, she had invested all that she had in Nazir to enable him to be a Government school teacher. But destiny held something grave for her. When she was about to reap the best of her life, Nazir disappeared. "I tried to commit suicide but a neighbour saved me," said Mughlee, who for most of the time remains hooked on slim hopes that Nazir would reappear one day. Perhaps, it is why she regularly dusts Nazir's room for an everyday welcome.

A victim of brain damage, Ghulam Mohammad Bazaz cannot speak much or walk a distance or do other than gaze at a picture of his son Sajjad in a semi-dark corner of his ground floor room at Hazratbal. Sajjad, a shopkeeper was arrested by an identified BSF officer from his Nigheen shop on February 12th, 1992. Police orders confirm the arrest. Civil authorities are aware of the case. But so far nothing has come out as the State Government has kept up the refrain that Sajjad was never arrested and might have gone across the border to get trained in handling of firearms.

Role of Judiciary

In most cases, the families have knocked at the door of the judiciary. Though justice has not been denied, it has been certainly delayed. In 35 cases thus far, the High Court has appointed inquiry magistrates. Though some of them are still midway, primarily because of the non-co-operation from the security forces, those that have been completed have brought no solace to the families. In 26 of the cases in which the officials responsible for arrest were identified, a Division Bench of the High Court ordered initiating criminal proceedings against the culprits. Notices issued by the High Court to the state asking why the officials concerned cannot be tried in the court of law have been ignored.

The most debated case in the judicio-legal circles here is that of a senior school teacher. Peer Mohammad Shafi was arrested by 46 Bn. the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) from his ancestral Khuroo village in early 1990. A subsequent judicial probe identifies Mr. Ajay Panday, a CRPF officer, as responsible for the arrest. When the court issued the show cause notice, Panday was shifted to Punjab and posted as a member in the security ring of the then police chief of Punjab, Mr. K.P.S. Gill. When a local police officer went to Punjab and served the notice, Panday reportedly tore it up and threatened the officer of dire consequences. It may be recalled here that the judiciary, as per its norms, seeks a 'no objection letter' from the state when its employees are to be prosecuted.

The affected families have now floated a platform. They have held protests in the High Court premises and once even went to New Delhi where they interacted with the union ministers and a host of human rights activists. Thus far they have drawn a blank as none of them have been punished for the arrest and the subsequent elimination of the youths.

Though the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is here, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) it has signed with India, limits its functions to its visits to jails. Amnesty International and similar national and international agencies have been continuously monitoring the cases. An Australia-based Amnesty group, headed by Emma Blower, is presently associated with "Enforced disappearances in Kashmir." The group had devised a 9-point programme to halt these disappearances which include the establishment of a separate commission to protect detainees, strengthening legal safeguards and an active policy to prevent disappearances and to bring perpetrators to justice. The group believes the Indian Human Rights Commission, established in September 1993, has virtually failed to stop the widespread violations of human rights in Kashmir, especially those of the detainees.

Diverse Responses

There are diverse responses from the security forces. Mr. P.S. Gill, the Inspector General of Police (Kashmir) believes that it is "all ISI propaganda." His juniors say he is lying because there are a number of known cases.

Even the Home Department is believed to have documented some 80 cases. Squadron leader, Mr. S. Hari Haran, the spokesman of the 15 corps headquarters said, "the army is arresting suspects and if they are innocent, they are being handed over to the police and if they are involved, they are sent to jails through police." He claimed no knowledge about the document which has listed 29 persons missing from the custody of the Rashtriya Rifles (RR) in Anantnag district.

Mr. Appa Saheb Alur, Inspector General BSF Kashmir Frontier, said not a single soul is missing in his custody. But he agreed that there could have been disappearances in the Valley before he was sent to Kashmir.