IOK HR body wants DNA profiling of 2,080 unidentified bodies
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ISLAMABAD: The Human Rights Commission has recommended identification of the victims buried in 2,080 unmarked graves found in Rajouri and Poonch districts of Jammu region, using DNA profiling and other forensic examinations.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the puppet administration in its report to the commission has already accepted the presence of 1,486 and 594 unmarked graves in Poonch and Rajouri districts, respectively.
The recommendations are similar to those issued by the commission on October 19, 2011 for the identification of 2,156 unidentified bodies discovered in unmarked graves in Baramulla, Bandipora and Kupwara districts of north Kashmir.
Soon after the verdict in 2011, Srinagar-based human rights lawyer, Parvez Imroz, and others had approached the rights commission with a petition maintaining that there were unmarked and unidentified graves in Poonch and Rajouri also.
Since the puppet regime has accepted that there are 2,080 unidentified and unmarked graves in Poonch and Rajouri, the Chairman of the commission, Justice (retd) Bilal Nazki, in his verdict on Thursday said that the rights body had no hesitation in issuing the directions already issued in earlier petitions in 2011 with regard to the identification of unmarked and mass graves in north Kashmir.
As per the recommendations, “the dead bodies in unmarked graves shall be identified by all available means and techniques like DNA profile, physical description, dental examination, distinctive medical characteristics, finger prints, carbon dating and forensic pathology as may be applicable.”
The aim is to see if the identity of the bodies matches the identity of the people subjected to custodial disappearance by Indian troops and police personnel during the last twenty eight years. Human rights groups in the occupied territory claim that over 8,000 people have been subjected to custodial disappearance by Indian police and troops since 1989.
