Kin Of Missing Should Submit DNA Tags To SHRC: Omar

“Judge Me On AFSPA Only After Judging Self-Rule, Azadi Camps”  

SRINAGAR: Chief minister Omar Abdullah on Friday said that the kin of disappearance victims should hand over their DNA profiles to the State Human Rights Commission for matching with the contents of unmarked graves found in the state’s frontier areas.

Abdullah was replying to questions at a Press Club of India function in New Delhi.

“The stand of the government is clear,” he told the media. “Those who talk of disappearances should submit their DNA profiles to the nodal officer of the State Human Rights Commission.”

“Anyone who believes that his or her kin is buried in these unmarked graves should come forward give us his DNA sample. We will match it with persons buried in the unmarked graves,” he said.

“The government is serious on this issue, and its intentions are sincere,” he said.

“But unfortunately, no one has come forward, even though we had made a clear offer,” he said.

“The state needs a Truth and Reconciliation Commission which is authorised to conduct investigations on both sides of the Line of Control,

“There are a lot of questions that beg for answers, and answers cannot be found only in the valley,” he said.

“Speculation is rife that all those who have disappeared (in Jammu and Kashmir) were killed by the security forces,” he said.

“What happened to those who were killed by militants, or those who went to Pakistan-administered-Kashmir and were killed on return during infiltration?” he said.

“And also, you have to account for those who are in (militant) training camps across the frontier,” he said.     

ASK SELF-RULE, AZADI CAMPS ALSO

Abdullah countered media queries about the lack of progress in revoking AFSPA by asking press men to put the PDP and the Kashmiri separatists on the mat also for their self-rule and azadi planks.

“I am surprised that the media does not ask my predecessors about their failure in their self-rule, troop-withdrawal and dual currency demands,” he said.

“Nor does the press question the separatists about their so-called azadi slogan,” he said.

“You must judge me only after putting them through the same scrutiny,” he said.

 “At least I don’t try to build castles in the air like the others. I am doing something concrete, and have made a promise which is possible to turn into reality,” he said.

“We may not have been successful as yet, but that does not mean that we should give up trying,” he said. “I am sure that a positive outcome shall emerge.”

“The basic thing is that I have never talked of revoking the AFSPA from the LoC or the areas along it,” he said.

“All I have proposed is that the law can be withdrawn from areas like Srinagar and Jammu,” he said.

When reminded of apprehensions that such areas could again turn into militant sanctuaries on revoking the AFSPA, he said: “On the one hand you say that you can bank on the state police and the CRPF, but in the same breath you say that the AFSPA must remain.”     

“There has been a discernible change in the situation in the past 10 years. The level of violence has dropped down to 5 per cent as compared to 2002,” he said.

“The time has come to repose trust in the state police and the CRPF with regard to maintaining peace,” he said.

“I am sure that the CRPF and the Jammu and Kashmir police has acquired the capability to tackle the situation in areas where, for a specific period of time, peace could be maintained only with the help of the army,” he said.

“These are the areas from where we ask the AFSPA to be withdrawn,” he said.  

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