Enforced disappearances: APDP stages silent protest

Srinagar: On the eve of International Human Rights Day, the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), Monday held a silent protest against what it termed state and central governments’ “disingenuous approach” in tracing out their family members, subjected to enforced disappearance since 1989 across the state.
The family members of disappeared youth castigated the successive governments for being indifferent towards their pain and agony. “Neither National Conference nor PdP did anything for them to trace their missing loved one. If BJP will trace our loved ones dead or alive, we will certainly then support this party,” said an elderly woman whose son according to her was picked by Border Security Forces during a crackdown 18 years ago and since then she doesn’t know where he is.
Wearing white head bands with names of disappeared people written in black, the relatives participated in APDP’s proposed sit-in program to draw attention of the government and the media to seek information about their loved ones, who have vanished, presumed dead or imprisoned without trial or record.
She alleged that their dear ones have been subjected to enforced disappearances by the Indian forces and their related agencies from their homes, streets and even roads. The elderly woman vowed to continue her struggle for truth, justice and accountability till both the state and central governments accept their demand of impartial probe into the enforced disappearances and custodial killings.
APDP Chairperson Parveena Ahangar said that the main aim of their protest is to make the world community aware of the plight of people of Kashmir. “We want to draw the attention of international rights groups for intervening and mounting pressure on India to provide whereabouts of our missing family members,” she said.
She said that despite being a signatory to the international conventions against human rights violations, India seems less bothered to deliver justice to those families whose loved ones were arrested and then subjected to enforced disappearances by security agencies here.