APDP

Recognizing that Enforced Involuntary Disappearance is a systematic and predetermined crime which can be confronted only through a collective response, 1994 onwards Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), is relentlessly campaigning against Enforced Disappearances in Jammu and Kashmir. APDP is an association of the relatives of the victims of Enforced Disappearances in Jammu and Kashmir come together to seek justice and to get information on the whereabouts of their disappeared relative.

APDP was founded in 1994 by Parveena Ahangar, supported by lawyers and human rights activists in Kashmir. In 1991 Parveena`s son Javaid Ahangar was abducted by Indian security forces and never heard of again. Security forces in a search-and-cordon operation picked him up at night from his uncle`s home where he was studying. Early in the morning when Parveena got the news that her son had been taken by the army in a van, she was distraught. However, she did not lose hope-her son was innocent, he would be set free. Parveena`s hope was in vain, but it marked the beginning of her long and continuing battle to trace her son; a battle fraught with anguish and despair; a battle which she continues to fight with courage and fortitude: in spite of the sorrow, which she says is as raw as it was on the day she learnt that her 19 year old Javaid was picked up. Through sheer determination and grit she learnt to find her way through brutality and callousness. She says her fear disappeared along with her son. She went from police station to police station, interrogation centre to interrogation centre, camp to camp, hospital to hospital looking for him. She met many others like her who were also searching for their loved ones. Parveena opened her home to them where they would bond together, share their grief and their meals, draw their strength and set out on their search together.

As the number of disappearances started growing the origins and aims of this form of repression, became evident. It was part of the larger policy of repression followed by the state, a strategy to terrorise people. Efforts by individuals to trace their missing relatives became unsustainable. During the early nineties very few people dared to come to the court for redress. In 1994, Parveena filed a habeas corpus petition in the Srinagar High Court. With the help of human rights activists and lawyers more and more petitions continued to be filed. More and more family members got together, went to court together, held demonstrations together. They were picked up and put in prison and even faced police firing, but they confronted brute force with the strength of their sorrow, anguish and solidarity. Thus began a movement, a collective struggle formalized as APDP.

In its struggle APDP has drawn support from local, Indian and international human rights activists and organizations. APDP is a member of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) which was launched in Philippines in 1998 and has participated in its meetings and conferences in Phillipines, Indonesia and Thailand.

On November 26th and 27th 2008 Parveena Ahanger, President APDP visited Geneva to attend the 86th Session of the United Nations Working Group on Involuntary Enforced Disappearances,(WGIED). The United Nations Commission on Human Rights established the Working Group in 1980 to assist families in determining the fate and whereabouts of disappeared relatives. The main purpose of the visit was to make submissions on behalf of the APDP on the issue of Enforced Disappearance in Kashmir. The written submissions by APDP consisted of six individual case submissions (along with extensive documentation) as well as a general submission on the issue of Enforced Disappearances in Kashmir, and features of the legal framework which impede efforts of families seeking justice.