Buried Evidence: Unknown, Unmarked, and Mass Graves in Indian-Administered Kashmir
Buried Evidence: Unknown, Unmarked, and Mass Graves in Indian-administered Kashmir: A Preliminary Report, International People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Indian-administered Kashmir, 2009; ISBN 9780615326481
33 Pages Posted: 24 Sep 2018
Date Written: December 2, 2009
Abstract
Buried evidence documents the violence’s of militarization in Indian-administered Kashmir. In Kashmir, between 1989-2009, the actions of the military and paramilitary have resulted in 8,000 enforced disappearances and 70,000 deaths, including through extrajudicial or “fake encounter” executions, custodial brutality, and other means. Based on applied research conducted between November 2006-November 2009, this report documents 2,700 unknown, unmarked, and mass graves, containing 2,943 bodies, across 55 villages in Bandipora, Baramulla, and Kupwara districts of Kashmir.
The report documents in considerable detail how the actions of military and paramilitary forces in Kashmir inflict terror on the local population, disbursed through “extrajudicial” means and those authorized by law. In the enduring conflict, 6,67,000 military and paramilitary personnel acts with impunity to regulate movement, law, and order across Kashmir. Official state discourse conflates cross-border militancy with present nonviolent struggles by local Kashmiri groups for political and territorial self-determination, portraying local resistance as “terrorist” activity.
Based on its findings, the International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Indian-administered Kashmir recommends that Indian-administered Kashmir be recognized as a conflict situation in a heavily militarized and nuclear zone, requiring that the international community act expeditiously to address the systemic dangers, violence’s, and injustices endemic to Indian rule.
Keywords: Unknown and Mass Graves, Political Conflict, Enforced Disappearences, Extrajudicial Killings, Kashmir, India, South Asia
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