APDP concerned over missing Pandit youth, holds sit-in

Srinagar: Coming down heavily on the police for failing to trace the missing Pandit youth, the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) on Thursday said that the incident was an indicator about the continued phenomenon of disappearances in Jammu and Kashmir.

21-year-old Susheel Raina, son of Badrinath Raina went missing from Chandergam, Aishmuqam in south Kashmir’s Islamabad district on April, 4. Susheel had left his home to collect a certificate from the boys Degree College when he went missing.

“Susheel’s disappearance is an indicator about the continued phenomenon of people disappearing in Jammu and Kashmir. He is not the first one to disappear but if the government does not allow independent and impartial investigations into the phenomenon of enforced disappearances, unfortunately Susheel will not be the last one as well,” an APDP spokesman said, during a sit-in demonstration at SK Park here this afternoon.

Mother of Susheel Raina holding his picture at their residence in Ashmuqam: File Picture

Lashing out at police, the spokesman said that when it comes to high profile political murders, like the one of Jamiat-e-Ahli Hadith (JAH) President, Maulana Showkat Ahmed Shah recently, police swiftly came out with a charge sheet against some people without even providing a shred of evidence.

“But when there are cases of common Kashmiris like Susheel no one seems to be interested in investigating these cases. Intelligence agencies are clueless and news analysts are silent,” he said.

The spokesman said that the police claims of investigating the disappearance cases in last two decades have neither begun nor ended. In rare cases, the spokesman said where police investigations have indicted the perpetrators, no one has been prosecuted.

“Like so many young men, justice too appears to have been forced to disappear from Jammu and Kashmir. People who seek justice are branded as hardliners and the ones denying justice claim to be the torch bearers of democracy. Democracy is strengthened by truth and justice but here in Kashmir transparency, accountability and truth are the most hated concepts for democrats,” he said.

Reiterating its demand for independent investigations into all the cases of enforced disappearances, the APDP urged the government to shun ‘callousness’ and help the family of the Pandit youth establish his whereabouts.