Freny Manecksha
Not far from Ghanta Ghar in Srinagar, which has morphed into a site for tourists and Instagram selfies, is the Bund and the Amira Kadal bridge. Like the clock tower, both have historic connotations that stand at risk of makeovers and erasures in rapidly-changing Srinagar.
The Bund, a walkway, along the right bank of the Jhelum, was built in the early years of the 20th century, during Dogra rule, for the convenience of British tourists. The elegant buildings that flanked the walkway were constructed in a variety of styles, ranging from traditional architecture near the alleys of Abi Guzar to colonial-style buildings.
One notable building bearing testimony to Srinagar’s cosmopolitan heritage was owned by a Parsi family, the Pestonjis. It was well known for the white wooden horse that stood outside – the brand mark of a Scottish distillery. Though the building was gutted by fire in 1992, the wooden horse survived and was relocated to a shopping mall. But fortunately, the legendary Suffering Moses store, started in 1840 by the Wani family, still stands with its rooms containing exquisite collections of Kashmiri craftsmanship.
Amidst these splendid heritage structures is a building, believed to be over a hundred years old, known locally simply as “human rights walloh ka office”.
Standing almost at the very edge of the Bund, abutting the Amira Kadal, it is not fancy. But its walls are imprinted with history. It was in these rooms that Kashmir’s civil society was nurtured over the decades, doors were opened for all kinds of animated dialogue, debate and even confrontation – but always in a very respectful way.
Advocate Parvez Imroz, whose family owns the office, says the building was purchased by his grandfather from a wealthy Sikh family before 1947. For some years, a Pandit family used to run a hotel on the premises. The Jhelum View Hotel became the haunt of the Valley’s intelligentsia and socialists, reflecting the mood of Kashmir in the ’50s.
The building, recalled Imroz, later housed the office of the Kashmir Times founded by Ved Bhasin in 1954. The largest English circulating daily at that time, it was headed in Srinagar by bureau chief Zaffar Meraj. Mainstream politicians often came here to issue their press statements.
The building also housed the offices of trade unionist and human rights crusader Hriday Nath Wanchoo, who was organising sweepers and sanitation workers for their rights under the banner of the All India Trade Union Congress. He was shot dead by militants in 1992.
Imroz, who had his legal chambers in the building, said this practice of accommodating human rights advocates and citizens seeking justice under this one roof had begun expanding: in the conflict years, the entire premises were taken over for such endeavours. The bulk of Imroz’s work was to do with cases of disappeared people – or enforced disappearances, as this is technically known.
The Indian forces arrested and routinely detained men for interrogation. Many never returned home. Relatives, in anguish, began thronging the office. Habeas corpus pleas were filed to find out the fate of those missing. Human rights workers began to document and identify the perpetrators of this phenomenon. A conservative estimate puts the number of enforced disappearances since the beginning of the insurgency in 1989 at around 8,000 people.
In 1994, Imroz became one of the founders of the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons. Another founder was Khurram Parvez who holds a Masters degree in mass communications and journalism from Kashmir University. In 2021, Khurram Parvez would be arrested by the National Intelligence Agency under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and the Indian Penal Code. He has been accused of being part of a criminal conspiracy and raising funds for a terror act and is in jail in Delhi.
The Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons was formed as a collective to demand the truth: they wanted to know the whereabouts of the people who had disappeared and to campaign on the issue. Anyone whose family member had disappeared could join.
Over the years, the association was influenced by other associations concerned about disappeared persons. It started viewing disappearances beyond Kashmir’s own history; the struggle was placed in the context of the broader world order for justice. This international perspective was a keystone not just of the association’s functioning but also the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, founded in 2000 and of which it is a member.
In 1998, the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances was founded in Manila to address enforced disappearances across the continent. The offices of the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons in Srinagar became the federation’s chapter of Kashmir. Parvez, who had received the Rebok human rights award in 2006, was elected chairperson of Asian Federation in 2014.
Gradually, victims of human rights violations other than disappearances also began thronging the office premises. The process of meticulously documenting these cases along with legal proceedings wherever possible gained momentum. Out of this came Informative Missives, a monthly dossier recording human rights violations.
Informative Missives continued its work until 2019, the year when Article 370 that gave Jammu and Kashmir special status under the Indian Constitution was abrogated. A devastating lockdown and communication siege was imposed.
The sheer numbers of people flocking the office and the crucial need to have independent spaces to discuss Kashmir was the impetus for the founding of the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society. It was an amalgam of several non-funded, non-profit, campaign, research and advocacy organisations based in Srinagar.
Imroz explained the idea grew out of the vital need to nurture civil society as the main stakeholder in a region where spaces were controlled by politicians and political organisations. These came, he said, with their own history of compromises and limitations, particularly as Kashmir was caught in the tussle between India and Pakistan.
“The idea was to create spaces which were value based, particularly for the youth, where besides documenting rights violations one could also discuss ways for non-violent resolution of the conflict and one that would restrain extremism,” he said. “The aim was to foster transparency and put emphasis on the important role of civil society, even post conflict.”
Over the decades, a steady stream of people flowed through the rooms. There were Kashmiris from varied backgrounds, members of civil society from many parts of India, foreign correspondents and students interning from various universities. They were eager to gain experience in documentation from a civil society organisation of repute. In addition, diplomats, many of them Americans or Canadians, visited the office to try to glean insights.
In 2008, the ambassadors of four Scandinavian countries visited the office to voice their concern and demonstrate solidarity with Imroz after an attack on him at his home on June 30 that year, by Indian forces. This occurred after painstaking research had unearthed the presence of mass unknown graves in several parts of the state believed to contain the remains of enforced disappearances and unlawful killings. These had been documented by the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons in a report on March 29, 2008.
