KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
Terming Chief Minister’s ‘Battle of ideas’ as ‘Battle of blood’, Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) Wednesday asked the government to conduct DNA tests of the militants who were killed from November 17.
While addressing a press conference here on the embankments of river Jhelum at Amira Kadal where the families of three missing persons, were also present, Khurram Parvez, APDP member, said the authorities should conduct DNA tests of those militants who were killed in the encounters from November 17 of this year.
He demanded that the case of disappearance of the three Kupwara men should be investigated in a non-prejudicial manner and the information about their actual fate would be shared with their families at the earliest.
“It is important that all those unidentified persons killed in every encounter in Kashmir since 17th November 2015, the day of the disappearance of these 3 civilians, be investigated and their DNA samples be matched with the DNAs of the families of these 3 disappeared,” he said.
He said that DNA samples have been fudged several times in Kashmir. “We demand that an international laboratory that cannot be influenced by Indian army or the Jammu and Kashmir Police conduct the DNA test,” he said.
“The wrong information provided by the police officials to the family simply indicates that something is fishy behind it. We are seeking DNA tests, which will help the families of disappeared persons to get knowledgeable about the facts,” Parvez added.
He said that police have said that the three persons are the informers of army and have been sent to Pakistan to collect information there.
Parvez said that if the three persons are informers then why the police officials had made it public. “It would be the first time when the forces have revealed the identity of the persons, who are their informers,” he said.
He said that subsequently after the public outcry, Manzoor Ahmed Khawaja, the soldier of TA has been arrested and continues to be under police custody.
“Nonetheless the fact of the matter is that Manzoor alone cannot disappear three civilians. This crime was perhaps committed by more personnel of the 160 Battalion deployed at Hiri Camp, Trehgam, who should also be identified and arrested,” Parvez demanded.
Terming the probe ordered by army as an “eyes-wash”, Parvez said it is not the first time when army has ordered probe. “We have seen that by ordering such kind of probes, nothing new happened and no guilty was punished so far,” he said.
Taking a dig on Mufti led government, Parvez said that government has failed to investigate the matter and are acting as mute spectators. “Such kind of human rights violation against Kashmiris clearly indicates that Mufti’s battle of ideas is actually battle of blood,” he said.
The silence of CM Mufti exhibits his callousness. “If the Prime Minister of India can be condemned for his silence on the Dadri lynching case, why are the stakeholders in Jammu Kashmir not demanding the answers from Mufti Sayeed in this case? Is disappearance of these 3 persons not an important issue,” he questioned.
He said that they will move to High court to seek justice in this regard. “In the next week, we will move to High Court in this regard to seek justice for the families whose beloved ones are missing from more than a month,” he said.
Earlier, the Association of Parents and Disappeared Persons (APDP) were supposed to address press conference here at local hotel, but APDP said police officials threatened the hotel owner to disallow the presser.
Khurram Parvez said that the hotel owner was threatened by the police officials not to allow the press conference in the hotel.
“By disallowing the APDP presser on this sensitive issue, it appears that the government institutionally is blocking any news about these disappearances to reach the public, which is part of the overall cover up and sustains the phenomenon of impunity in Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.
