SRINAGAR: On the international Day of Disappeared Persons, Kashmirs blunt history was on the display at Pratap Park Srinagar where colours of agony, pain, sorrow and distress fluttered in air.
Scores of local students affiliated with Music and Fine Arts College while expressing solidarity with the families of disappeared persons put thoughtful paintings on display depicting the agony of those parents who die and sigh every time to know the whereabouts of their loved ones.
Scores of families of disappeared persons gathered at Pratap Park located in the City Centre Lal Chowk. Parents, young and old, brothers and sisters and better halves of disappeared Kashmiris carried photographs of their loved ones seeking their whereabouts.
My lone son Shabir Ahmed Dar was picked up by BSF from Rajbagh 13 years ago. He was a cloth merchant, just 25 years old when he was subjected to enforced disappearance, an elderly Muhammad Subhan of Noor Bagh said.
Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) Chairperson, Parveena Ahangar said that two recent cases of enforced disappearances have surfaced from Gool area of Ramban. Two youth are missing from Gool area Ramban and we had invited their parents as well to participate in todays peaceful sit-in.
A human rights activist demanded naming and shaming of those responsible for the disappearance of people. The institutional culture of institutional culpability and impunity has resulted in enforced and involuntary disappearance of at least 8,000 persons. This is a crime against humanity. The government of the day is also complicit in this crime against humanity, he said.
An elderly woman Taja Bano from Beeru Budgam while narrating her tale said that Army picked up her son during a nocturnal raid in 1998. That was the last day when I saw his face. We left no stone unturned in tracing him out but all our efforts proved futile, she said.
JKLF chairman, Muhammad Yasin Malik participated in peaceful sit-in and expressed solidarity with the affected families.
Local youth painted their bodies with different slogans. I am a local youth having no affiliation with any party. The slogans you see painted on body could give you an idea that I, like other Kashmiri people, demand stern punishment for the those Army and BSF personnel who are responsible for the disappearances of innocent Kashmiri youth, said a protestor.
Young boys and girls displayed paintings on the occasion, which depicted the agony and distress of affected families. (CNS)
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