Omar, however, advocated setting up of a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate all killings in the state, instead of investigating the unmarked graves.
The State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) recently admitted the presence of unmarked graves with over 2,000 bodies at 38 sites in north Kashmir. It called for a probe by an impartial agency into all disappearance cases in the state.
“It is premature to say anything about the issue this time. Surely, we want to know who were buried in the graves and we also want an answer to the questions raised by SHRC in this regard,” the chief minister told media persons on the side- lines of a function here.
Omar added that while in the opposition, he had demanded setting up of a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate all killings, whether by police, security forces and militants. “I still advocate the view. The unified headquarters comprising of police, security and intelligence agencies, will meet on Tuesday and may discuss the unmarked grave issue,” Omar said.
Opposition leader and PDP (People’s Democratic Party) president, Mehbooba Mufti, demanded a high level probe by an impartial agency to establish the identities of persons, buried in the unmarked graves. “DNA tests must be conducted without wasting any time to give justice to the families of victims,” she said.
The hardline faction of Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani claimed that the SHRC disclosure was an attempt by the government to cover up such killings.
“(The issue of )Unmarked graves have already come into the notice of international human rights organizations and they were demanding a probe. To cover up the killings, the SHRC admitted the presence of unmarked graves. The number of graves and the persons buried is much more than stated by SHRC. All the killed persons are innocents,” said Ayes Akbar, spokesman of the faction.
Akbar demanded a probe into the matter by war crime tribunal of the United Nations. “We should not expect justice from any probe of government, which is responsible for these innocent killings,” Ayaz said.
The moderate faction of Hurriyat and JKLF has also demanded an impartial probe into the matter.