The Jammu-Kashmir State Human Rights Commission (J&KSHRC) said in the report that Indian police had claimed the 2,156 corpses were of Mujahideen fighting against Indian rule. Rights groups say, however, that innocent people have been caught up in the conflict and some 8,000 have disappeared since 1989.
The graves were found in dozens of villages near the Line of Control.
?At 38 places visited in north Kashmir, there were 2,156 unidentified dead bodies buried in unmarked graves,? the inquiry report said. The report revealed that there were 21 unmarked graves in Baramulla, three each in Bandipore and Handwara and 11 in Kupwara.
The probe said it established 851 unidentified bodies in Baramulla, 14 in Bandipore, 14 in Handwara and 1277 in Kupwara. The report said all these bodies with bullet injuries were handed over by the police to the local population for burial and were classified as unidentified militants (Mujahideen).
The report while strongly contesting this in the absence of any profiling done by the police, called for a thorough investigation across the territory, FIRs, exhumation and prompt DNA profiling of the bodies and comparison of samples with those taken from residents who had been campaigning against the disappearance of their relatives.
The report said few bodies were defaced, 20 were charred, five only had skulls remaining and there were at least 18 graves with more than one body each. The report, released on Saturday, comes after a three-year inquiry by an 11-member team led by Bashir Ahmad Yatoo, the senior superintendent of police of the investigative wing of the commission.
The team scoured police records to count the number of unidentified bodies sent for burial, cross-checked this against testimonies from police officials, eyewitnesses, village committees, village heads, elders, mosque committees, gravediggers and records prepared by caretakers of the graveyards.
Many witnesses spoke on the condition of anonymity and the testimonies of 62 of them had been made part of the report. The report was handed over to the commission last month.
In fact, the commission probe was the response to a campaign by the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), which in March 2008, released a report, ?Facts Underground? and pointed out the presence of unmarked graves. The next month, the J&KSHRC issued notices to the then Congress-PDP puppet administration and set up the probe committee.
In December 2009, another human rights group, the International People?s Tribunal on Human Rights, released a report claiming that unmarked graveyards ?entomb bodies of those murdered in encounter, fake encounters and extra-judicial, summary, and arbitrary executions.?
The APDP, which estimates around 10,000 people went missing during nearly two decades of separatist revolt, says many missing people may have ended up in these unmarked graves.
?We appeal to International human rights groups and Indian authorities to identify the people buried,? said Parveena Ahanger, founder and chairperson of the APDP.
International human rights groups have also repeatedly asked the Indian authorities to investigate the unmarked graves.
Nearly 50,000 people have been killed in mainly Held Kashmir since a revolt against New Delhi?s rule began in 1989. On Saturday, Indian soldier shot dead 12 ?fighter? trying to cross from Pakistan.
Indian security forces in IHK have been accused of murdering innocent civilians in staged gunbattles and passing them off as separatist militants to earn rewards and promotions.
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