Shopkeepers join agitation against custodial deaths

Srinagar, Feb 10: Business activities in the historic Lal Chowk, the nerve centre of the summer capital of the Jammu and Kashmir came to a halt today as shopkeepers joined the family members of missing persons in their protest.

A large number of people, mostly parents of those who had disappeared after their arrest by the security forces since 1990, took to streets at Amira Kadal near here.

Appealing to authorities to give the whereabouts about their sons and brothers who went missing while in custody, the processionists sit on a dharna near the Amira Kadal bridge. Traffic on the main bridge remained suspended for about four hours.

They were also joined by the shopkeepers of Lal Chowk, Court road, Palladium chowk, Gantha Ghar and forest lane, who closed their establishments to express solidarity with the agitated parents of the missing persons.

However, situation in the nearby Badshah Chowk and other areas was normal.

Reports of similar protests by people were also received from other parts of the Valley.

The parents of missing persons said they did not want any compensation or employment but wanted to know what happened to their sons who disappeared after their arrest.

However, some of them expressed the hope that they, too, will get justice as was done in the case of four persons, who were killed by the Special Operation Group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmir police last year and later buried at Ganderbal after labeling them as terrorists.

The Police have already arrested four senior police officers in connection with the killing of four persons allegedly in fake encounters.

The Jammu and Kashmir government has already announced a judicial probe into these killings.

Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) alleged that 8000 people in Kashmir were missing since 1990 while the government claimed only few hundred had disappeared in the Valley during the same period.

UNI