JK: Protest on custodial disappearance continues

Srinagar, Feb 15: Encouraged by the arrest of four police officers in fake encounter killings in the Kashmir valley, massive protests against the custodial disappearance of youths continued.

Hundreds of locals, including women and children took to streets in Nishat and Shalimar areas in protest against the alleged custodial disappearance of Mohammad Rafiq.

Shops and business establishments in the areas, adjacent to Mughal Gardens, remained closed and traffic was off the roads.

The demonstrators alleged that Rafiq was arrested by the security forces on June 18, 2002 when he left for Jammu in his vehicle sumo.

However, his whereabouts were not known after his arrest, they said.

The family members alleged they visited almost all the detention and interrogation centres but could not find him.

They suspected Rafiq had been killed by the security forces and later buried at some unknown place after labelling him as a foreign militant.

A procession was taken out in the Civil Lines area demanding whereabouts about the missing persons. However, the processionists, after marching through different streets, including busy Budshah Chowk, dispersed peacefully.

They were demanding stern action against the security forces, Army and police personnel involved in the killing of innocent people in fake encounters in the Kashmir valley since 1989.

People in the valley intensified the protest against custodial disappearance after police arrested four senior officers of the force in connection with the killing of four innocent persons and later labeling them as foreign terrorists.

The police officers had been awarded for these killings.

Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Mohammad Yaseen Malik, who observed three-day hunger strike here recently in protest against the human rights violations, alleged that 8000 people were missing in the state since 1989 after their arrest.

The National Panthers Party chief Prof Bhim Singh has demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation probe. He also formed a five-member committee to collect information about all 'missing persons' in Jammu and Kashmir.

UNI

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