MT Desk: As the world observed the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances today, families of thousands of Kashmiris subjected to enforced disappearance in Indian custody over the past thirty-seven years in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir still await justice.

A report released by the Research Section of Kashmir Media Service on the occasion said that occupied Jammu and Kashmir, being the most militarized zone in the world, has witnessed extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture, molestation, rape and other brutalities at the hands of Indian forces. The issue of missing persons and enforced disappearances remains a profound source of trauma, public anxiety, and grief across Kashmir.

Local communities, human rights organizations, and international observers continue to express severe concern over the thousands of unresolved cases. At least 8,000 innocent civilians have vanished in Indian forces’ custody since 1989. The report maintained that intensified Indian military crackdowns and the rising number of extra-judicial killings, both in custody and in fake encounters, are part of the anti-Kashmir designs of the Hindutva-inspired Indian BJP government.

Ironically, the report added, Kashmiri youth have been a specific target of over one million occupation troops deployed in the territory. The report revealed that the families and relatives of victims of enforced disappearances have moved from pillar to post to trace their missing loved ones, but to no avail. The families of the disappeared also suffer economically because, in most cases, the breadwinner of the family was targeted.

The report maintained that disappearances not only silence opponents but also create uncertainty and fear in the wider community. This inhuman, savage and insensate act has been committed by all the tributaries of the so-called security apparatus comprising Indian military, paramilitary and special task forces, as well as counter-insurgents working under the superintendence, control and direction of the armed forces.

Human rights activists have documented thousands of unmarked graves across the disputed region. Local inquiries and activist investigations have revealed that a portion of the bodies belong to disappeared local residents.

The cruel practice of enforced disappearances has given rise to a new class of people called “half-widows” and “half-orphans,” now common phrases used in occupied Kashmir. The impunity provided to forces’ personnel through draconian laws like the Disturbed Areas Act, Armed Forces Special Powers Act, Public Safety Act, and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act has given them license to kill, terrorize, arrest, harass and silence the people, and to besiege, snatch and ransack their property without being questioned.

Following the illegal abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A, public alarm has intensified over reports of missing women and girls in IIOJK. Reports presented to bodies like the European Parliament highlight that nearly 10,000 women and girls have gone missing in occupied Jammu and Kashmir in recent years, prompting localized protests and demands for immediate investigation.

According to figures presented by Ajay Kumar, India’s Minister of State for Home Affairs, in the Indian Parliament, 9,765 females — including 1,148 girls under the age of 18 — have been reported missing from occupied Jammu and Kashmir since 2019.In July 2026, a local court issued a landmark ruling ordering a formal death certificate for Abdul Rashid Wani, a man who vanished from military custody in 1997.

Meanwhile, the APHC-AJK chapter, in connection with the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, demanded the trial of Indian troops directly involved in the disappearances of Kashmiris by an international crimes court. They appealed to the international community to play its role in tracing the whereabouts of the thousands of Kashmiris subjected to custodial disappearance.