- New Delhi (IANS) More than 6,000 youths have gone missing
in the Kashmir Valley after being picked up by security forces, an activist
alleged in an interview published Thursday.
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- Pervez Imroz, a lawyer heading the Association of Parents
of Disappeared Persons (APDP), told The Times of India newspaper that most
of those missing were in the age group of 18 to 35 years and came from
poor or middle class families.
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- "Although the security forces are not authorised
to detain any person for more than 48 hours without producing (the accused)
in a police station, such safeguards are not always met. We often have
to go from one prison to another, looking for the detainee."
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- He reportedly set up APDP in 1994 when many victims'
relatives approached him to file habeas corpus petitions.
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- "It was then I realised the gravity of the situation,"
said Imroz.
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- He described the plight of the relatives of the missing
people as "pathetic".
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- "Those with missing husbands face a peculiar problem
as they can't even remarry with no official word about their husbands'
status," he said.
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- About 40,000 people have died in a separatist insurgency
raging in Jammu and Kashmir since 1989.
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