Not a single mass grave, no system of marking graves in J&K: Omar

PDP stages walk-out after Speaker rejected its adjournment motion on ‘mass graves’, missing persons

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Sep 27: Even as the principal opposition party, PDP, today staged a walk-out over Speaker’s rejection of its adjournment motion on the issue of ‘unmarked and mass graves’ in Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah asserted in Legislative Assembly that there was not a single mass grave in the state. He admitted that hundreds of unidentified persons, including large number of militants from as many as 12 foreign countries, were buried in community cemeteries but made it strongly clear that there was neither a system of marking all tombs nor any available means of ascertaining the identities of the individuals buried in the last 22 years of insurgency.

First very day of the regular business of the autumn session in Assembly witnessed low voltage clashes between members of the opposition PDP and the ruling NC over the issue of ‘unmarked and mass graves’ that has been animated with some recent deliberations of J&K State Human Rights Commission (SHRC). Even as NC’s Mir Saifullah had moved a resolution on the subject and it had been admitted for a discussion, 14 MLAs from PDP filed an adjournment motion on the same subject.  With the beginning of the Question Hour today, all of PDP’s MLAs, including Patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and President Mehbooba Mufti, got up to press their motion. They urged Speaker, Mohammad Akbar Lone, to adjourn Assembly’s routine business fully and initiate a discussion on their motion.

With punctuations of verbal clashes between certain MLAs of the rival camps, including heated debates on rules and interventions from at least two Ministers, Speaker maintained for about an hour that he was “barred by rules” and thus could not entertain two separate resolutions or motions on one particular subject. Speaker’s contention was strongly supported by Minister of Law & Parliamentary Affairs, Ali Mohammad Sagar, and Minister of Finance, Abdul Rahim Rather, with a barrage of references to the Rules of Business. On the contrary, PDP’s legal luminaries, including eminent lawyer and former Law Minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig and Nizam-ud-din Bhat, made counter arguments. They insisted that their motion transcended the body of NC’s resolution and thus necessitated a “more comprehensive discussion” on the subject.

When exactly at the end of the fully spoiled Question Hour, some of the PDP MLAs pressed for “either admission or rejection” of their motion, Speaker promptly declared that the motion stood rejected. With that, all of the PDP MLAs, excluding Dy Speaker Sartaj Madni, staged a walk-out to register their protest. They did not return to the House for rest of the day even as Speaker later initiated a full-length discussion on the NC MLA’s resolution on the same subject.

Arguably in one of his most impressive parliamentary speeches, Chief Minister asserted that “the hoax of unmarked and mass graves” had been created by separatist as well as mainstream politicians, human rights activists and media to sustain themselves in the political conflict called Kashmir. He complained that various actors in the conflict were “selling missing persons, unmarked and mass graves to the world” for their vested interest. He said he was utterly surprised how leaders like his own NC’s Kafeel-ur-Rehman were complaining of mass graves and defaming the state with “a sustained campaign of misinformation and disinformation”.

“Rather than hunting with the hounds, he (NC’s MLA) should provide information to SHRC and identify the spot where, he believed, over a hundred persons had been buried in a mass grave”, Omar Abdullah asserted, without reaction from his party colleague.

“By virtue of my best knowledge and belief, I strongly claim that there is not even a single mass grave anywhere in the state of Jammu & Kashmir. It’s easy to talk and hard to prove. I won’t hesitate to admit that there are many unmarked graves in all of our cemeteries. But, let it be clear to the world that we, in Jammu and Kashmir, don’t have a system of marking all graves. The issue is being raised wildly as if there was a system of marking the graves here. Here’s none. Yes, in few graves, I believe, there are two bodies instead of one. But, the impression is being created that there are thousands of mass graves with hundreds of bodies buried together like in Hitler’s country and Combodia”, Omar said.

Chief Minister moved on to admit that a number of civilians had been either kidnapped or subjected to enforced disappearance by armed forces. He was quick to add that thousands of unidentified militants from as many as 12 identified foreign countries---Pakistan, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Russia, Sudan, Britain etc---had got killed in encounters with security forces in the last 22 years in J&K but successive governments had no available means to ascertain their identities. While admitting custodial killings and enforced disappearances by armed forces, Omar asserted that thousands more had been eliminated by militants. He said that militants too had kidnapped people and subjected them to enforced disappearance in large numbers while as many of the militants were believed to have died during training at their camps and because of many other factors.

“Many of the missing militants are known to have raised families across the border. Many are known to be working as labours, vendors, salesmen and shopkeepers”, Omar asserted and asked how each and every missing person could be dumped in the government’s account. According to him, politicians, human rights activists and media were mixing up all disappearances and killings to corner the government.

“The other day only, one of our newspapers reported that there were 2500 mass graves in Poonch district alone. Had this large number of people died and disappeared, their families would not have remained silent for 22 years. They would have raised a storm. Let me make it clear that according to the best verified official statistics, 2,136 militants have died in gunbattles with troops in Poonch and they have all been buried separately with full religious rituals. As many as 2,090 of them were foreigners. Nobody of us knows anything about their identities, families and places of residence. We have no clues. Are they all civilian victims of the forces’ human rights abuse?” Chief Minister asked, amid pin drop silence in the House.

He said that even in the statistics from different quarters, there were too many variations. “According to official figures, 17000 civilians have been killed by militants and forces in J&K. Statistics from separatist leaders and Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) are completely different over those killed openly or subjected to enforced disappearance”, Omar added. He said that in order to reach out to the truth, he had proposed constitution of Truth & Reconciliation Commission when he was in Opposition. He made it clear that its functioning was impossible until both, India and Pakistan, lent it full support and cooperation.

“Pakistan has been claiming for over 20 years that there is an indigenous freedom movement in Kashmir. It has been claiming to the world that those across the LoC are all Kashmiris, fighting for freedom. The fact remains that families of 800 of these people have given us applications to facilitate return of their children. Another fact is that thousands of foreigners, including Pakistani militants, have died here. How is it possible for Pakistan to claim all these men? It will obviously land them in an embarrassing situation”, Omar asserted and claimed that TRC would prove to be the best CBM between India and Pakistan. He pointed out that Islamabad had not owned even its regular soldiers who had infiltrated into Kargil and died in a war in 1999. “How would it own the militants?” he asked.

Taking exception to Mehbooba Mufti’s reference to a debate of Kashmir’s mass graves in the British Parliament, Omar lashed out at UK and other foreign countries for their “untold human rights abuse” in Iraq, Afghanistan and many other countries. He said that those lecturing J&K on human rights were themselves indulging in shameful rights abuse and it was none of their business “to poke their nose in our matters”.

Chief Minister said that it was a matter of pride for every citizen in this country that our institutions were so much democratic and transparent that it was SHRC which had raked up the issue of custodial killings in J&K. He assured the people that his government would work on the SHRC recommendations with complete sincerity and good intentions. He advised members of the families of disappeared persons to file FIRs in the government’s human rights cell and provide their blood samples for DNA matching with the unidentified men buried in graves.

“Those who delivered lecture here on SHRC report are the people who did not implement a single recommendation of the commission during their regime. They even forced Chairman of SHRC to resign. We will never do that”, Omar said while making a dig on the PDP MLAs who were on walk-out during the discussion.

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