A state-run human rights body has asked authorities to investigate the alleged existence of unmarked graves holding thousands of unidentified bodies in Indian Kashmir, according to a report by Associated Press.
The Azad Kashmir State Human Rights Commission acted on a petition on Friday by a local rights group claiming that 3,844 unmarked graves existed in 208 sites in the remote Rajouri and Poonch districts.
Tariq Banday, secretary of the commission, says the Kashmir state government has been asked to investigate the allegations and provide its findings within a month.
Local rights groups say the graves may contain the bodies of Kashmiri civilians who have disappeared and may have been killed by government forces during the decades-old armed conflict.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 17th, 2011.
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