Disappearances in Kashmir add to growing tensions

KULGRAM: Disappearances of young men in the Kulgam and Kathua districts of Indian occupied Kashmir (IOK) has led to further distrust of law enforcement officials by the local population, according to an exclusive published by Al Jazeera.

The bodies of two young men, brothers aged 18 and 24, were found a month after they disappeared from Kulgam while on their way to attend a wedding in the Ashmuji area in February. Law enforcement ruled it a potential suicide via drowning in a canal about 10km from their homes. Another 24-year-old man named Mukhtar Ahmad Awan who disappeared at the same time has still not been found.

The suggestion of suicide resulted in a protest erupting on the national highway between Srinagar and Jammu.

A series of disappearances have also taken place in the Kathua district. Two people including Yogesh Singh and Darshan Singh, aged 32 and 40, as well as Varun Singh, 15, disappeared on their way home from a wedding in early March. They were also recovered dead from a canal days later. Mohammad Din and Rehman Ali also disappeared in Kathua and have yet to be found.

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Growing tensions

The father of the brothers who disappeared from Kulgram doesn’t believe law enforcements conclusion of suicide, instead suspecting foul play. The disappearances have led to increased distrust in law enforcement and the government, which is especially prevalent in the Gujjar community, which constitutes eight percent of Jammu and Kashmir’s population.

The killing of three Gujjar men by a police officer in 2020, the detainment and subsequent torture of locals after armed fighters attacked army vehicles in 2023, and the unexplained neurotoxin induced deaths of 17 people between December 2024 and January 2025, are just some of the more recent incidents that exemplify the aforementioned rift.  

According to the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), since 1989, between 8,000 and 10,000 Kashmiris have gone missing.

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