Number of parents of missing declining fast

SRINAGAR: With every passing international day of disappeared persons the number of the parents of those persons who are missing from past twenty four years in the Kashmir valley is reducing steadily.

There have been as many as ten deaths of the parents of these disappeared persons who frequently assemble under the aegis of Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), since 2009.

This year, the father of Shabir Hussain Bhat who is missing since 27 April 1996 after 21 Battalion BSF allegedly took him from the Chattabal, Srinagar died with a hope of seeing his son unfulfilled.

Ghulam Mohammad Bhat would often come to commemorate the international Day of Disappeared Persons. He died on 7 January 2014. But my pledge to take his struggle to the logical end are not going to die, said Parveena Ahanger who heads the APDP.

Another mother Haseena Begum whose son Syed Anwar Shah was subjected to enforced disappearance by the Indian Security forces on 21 July 2000 died last year.

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Parveena said: Haseena would not miss any sit-on. She strived hard along with half widow of his disappeared son for thirteen years to get a glimpse of her son before she passed away on 5 October 2013.

According Ahangar, though some parents of the missing may not be present among us on this day. But remember: We will never break our pledge or rest till we get information about all of our children

The parents of the missing who died while struggling to find their missing sons in last few years, include Haleema Begum of Batamaloo, Wali Mohammad of Baramulla, Mohammad Jamaal Bhat of Kupwara, Zoona Begum of Rajbagh, Misri Begum of Bemina, Abdul Ahad Sofi of Naid Kadal, and Mahtaba Begum of Kupwara.

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