Srinagar, Oct 3: The Kashmir government Monday disclosed that 1,300 persons have been missing in the region during the past 20 years of turmoil, contradicting its earlier figures that 3,429 youth were missing from 1990 till 2009.
“1,378 persons are missing on account of the militancy during the last 20 years of turmoil in Kashmir,” Home Ministry, headed by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, said in a written reply in response to a question posed by lawmaker in the Upper House of Assembly today.
It said of the 1,378 missing persons, 1,199 were from the Kashmir division while 179 persons were from the Jammu province. “South Kashmir’s Pulwama district accounts for 275 missing persons followed by north Kashmir’s Kupwara district (235) and Srinagar (225). Baramulla district has 195 cases of missing people while south Kashmir’s Islamabad district has 121 such cases,” it said.
Among the missing persons from the Jammu region, 53 cases were reported from Jammu followed by 52 cases in the Kishtwar district. “47 persons have gone missing from Doda district, 19 from Rajouri, five from Reasi and three from Poonch,” the government said.
It said ex-gratia relief was paid to next of kin of the missing 740 persons while 530 cases were under process and 108 cases have been rejected due to adverse report from police.
It is pertinent to mention here that during the assembly session in 2009, the government had revealed that 3,429 youth had gone missing in the region from 1990 to July 2009. “Of these 1,062 had disappeared from Kashmir while 2,367 went missing from the Jammu region.”
Surprisingly, in 2001, the government had disclosed that 3,931 persons had gone missing in the State after the eruption of the militancy.
