Indian Kashmir separatists on Monday called on Amnesty International to discover the identities of bodies in nearly 1,000 unmarked graves found in the revolt-hit region. The Association of Parents of Disappeared People, or APDP, says around 8,000 people have vanished during the nearly two-decade-old separatist insurgency against New Delhi's rule. The group on Friday said it had discovered close to 1,000 “nameless graves” in 18 villages in the district of Uri, neighboring the Pakistan-administered zone of Kashmir. “It is a matter of grave concern for us. We want to know who are buried in these graves,” said Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a leading cleric and head of the moderate wing of the region's main separatist alliance. “We urge Amnesty International and other rights groups to identify the people buried in these graves,” Farooq said. APDP released a 23-page report, “Facts Under Ground,” on Friday that lists the nameless graves in the Muslim-majority region where the insurgency has been under way since 1989. “There are many more graves where the buried people have been claimed as foreign militants,” said group spokesman Pervez Imroz. “During our fact-finding, villagers reported most of the bodies were in fact of Kashmiris and not foreign militants as claimed by the security forces,” said Imroz. A police report said 331 people died in custody and 111 had disappeared after being arrested since the insurgency erupted in the region that is claimed by both India and Pakistan. Local human rights groups, however, say 8,000 people are missing, most after being arrested by Indian security forces. Indian security officials say many of the missing had crossed over to Pakistan to join insurgents and the Indian army rejected on Friday claims that the graves contained the bodies of anyone besides rebels. “Those who have been buried in these villages were killed in well established encounters (gun battles) over the past two decades,” army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Anil Kumar Mathur said. __
