Human Rights Panel Recommends DNA Profiling Of Bodies In Unmarked Graves In J&K

The Jammu and Kashmir State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has asked the state government to complete DNA profiling of the bodies in 2,080 unmarked graves in Poonch and Rajouri districts within six months.

On a plea of a human rights activist, SHRC chairman Justice (retired) Bilal Nazki ordered that the earlier directions of the commission with regard to unmarked graves be complied with within six months.

"I do not think the Commission needs to hold any further inquiry into the matter as the home department (of the state government) has accepted that there are 1,486 graves in Poonch which are unidentified and unmarked.

"In Rajouri, there are 594 graves which are unidentified and unmarked. So, there are 2,080 graves which are unmarked," Justice Nazki said in the order issued yesterday.

The SHRC chairman the commission has no hesitation in issuing "same directions" as have already been issued in similar cases in 2011.

In 2011, a bench of the SHRC had recommended an investigation by an independent "representative structured" body empowered to probe all aspects of unmarked graves in the Valley.

In its six-point recommendation, the bench had ordered DNA profiling of the bodies in unmarked graves in a cluster of villages at various places in north Kashmir's Baramulla, Bandipora and Kupwara districts.

"The bodies in unmarked graves... shall be identified by all available means and techniques such as DNA profiling, physical description, dental examination, distinctive medical characteristics, finger prints, carbon dating and forensic pathology," the bench had said. PTI