'Anna Hazare should start campaign against unmarked graves in J&K'

Moderate Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq Wednesday appealed to Anna Hazare and his team to launch a campaign for seeking answers from the government regarding the unmarked graves in Kashmir.

"We appeal to Anna Hazare, his team and civil society of India to start a campaign for unraveling the truth behind the unmarked graves in Kashmir," Mirwaiz said in his Eid sermon at Eidgah prayer ground in Srinagar.

"We have apprehensions that the persons who are buried in unmarked graves are those who went missing from various places in Kashmir," he said.

Mirwaiz claimed security agencies, including army and police, had found "an easy way of dubbing innocent people as militants from across (the LoC)."

"They add a prefix 'Abu' to 'Bhai' and pass the dead as from Pakistan or Muzaffarabad," he alleged.

The Hurriyat chairman said the people of Kashmir had lost faith in government agencies and demanded a probe by an independent, impartial and international agency into the issue.

"DNA tests should be carried out on all those buried in unmarked graves across the state so that their identity can be established," he added.

Mirwaiz said India and Pakistan need to focus their attention on resolution of Kashmir issue during their talks.

"However, the leadership of Kashmiri people has to be included in the dialogue process for finding a lasting solution," he added.