Atta Mohammad Khan played a significant role in identifying unmarked graves in Kashmir
Advocate Parvez Imroz, President Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society [JKCCS] and Patron Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), and three lawyers accompanying him were detained by personnel from police station Boniyar for more than one hour today.
The members and activists of APDP were visiting the grave site of Atta Mohammad Khan, in Bimyar village of Chehal area of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, to pay tributes and to lay a tombstone on his grave and to offer prayers.
Atta Mohammad, who died at the age 75, on 10th January 2016, has buried more than 230 unidentified bodies in the Bimyar graveyard between 2003 and 2009. He played a significant role in identifying unmarked graves in the Valley.
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“The event was planned to remember Atta Mohammad and his contribution to the discovery of the phenomenon of unmarked and mass graves in Jammu and Kashmir,” the APDP said.
According to the APDP the event could not be held and their members, around 15 persons, mostly family members of the disappeared, could not pay their respects to Atta Mohammad Khan, as a result of the police action.
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In a statement APDP said that the police informed them that Imroz and his team had to accompany the police to the Boniyar police station to meet with the Station House Officer. At the police station the names and personal details of each person were recorded and their phones were taken away. Finally, after about an hour they were informed that the Station House Officer would not be able to meet them and directed the not to hold the planned event. No formal order or reason was provided for the action of the police.
“State action today is yet another reminder of the manner in which the Indian State has used violence to curb all human rights in Jammu and Kashmir. Not only does the State refuse to recognize the phenomenon of enforced disappearances, or find the disappeared and punish the perpetrators, the State refuses to allow any activity that serves to memorialize and respect the disappeared. By choking the space for peaceful events, state wants to cover up the truth behind its sponsored violence,” the statement added.
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