Locals in Indian Kashmir Demand Investigation of Missing Persons

Relatives of missing persons in Indian Kashmir participated in a sit-in protest in Srinagar City on Tuesday. They demanded an inquiry commission be set up to conduct independent investigations into the disappearances.

Members of the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons protest on the 10th day of each month to demand information on the missing persons.

The association estimates around 10,000 people went missing - presumed kidnapped and murdered by security forces - during the 22-year-old separatist revolt in Kashmir.

The protesters accused the state government of not paying attention to their demands for independent inquiries.

[Abdul Rashid Beig, Father of a Missing Person]:
"Today we are also demanding, and every month we demand the same from the government - that an independent commission should be formed. If the commission will be formed, only then we will be able to find out where the missing ones are and who is behind these disappearances. But the government is not listening to us."

Protesters also accused the Indian security forces of killing civilians in staged gun-battles on the pretext that they are militants.