Srinagar, Dec. 28: Separatists have been saying it all along, now hear it from your MPs.

A delegation of parliamentarians and civil society members has confirmed that azaadi enjoys “widespread support” in Kashmir and custodial deaths and disappearances had “helped seal the alienation”.

The findings, in a report by Delhi-based think tank Centre for Policy Analysis (CPA), are equally disappointing for Pakistan — it is “irrelevant” in the Valley.

The 10-member delegation, led by Ram Vilas Paswan, had visited Kashmir from December 3 to 5 as part of a CPA initiative. In a media release today, the think tank said politicians like Paswan, A.B. Bardhan, Prakash Karat, Nama Nageshwar Rao, D. Raja, Danish Ali and other civil society members adopted the report, along with some recommendations, at a meeting in Delhi yesterday.

“Yesterday’s meeting was called to review the visit of the delegation and adopt the report,” CPA director Seema Mustafa said. Neither Bardhan nor Karat visited the Valley, but the others were part of the delegation.

According to the release, the slogan for azaadi enjoys “popular and widespread support” in Kashmir, the anger fuelled by the relentless cycle of violence.

“The death of 112 boys at the hands of security forces (in the five-month-long unrest), the mass arrests of young people that are still continuing, have virtually helped seal the alienation, giving the slogan for ‘azaadi’ popular and widespread support,” the release said.

The CPA statement, which quoted from the report, added that “thousands” had “disappeared” in Kashmir, “which various organisations and civil society at large insist has been at the hands of security forces...”

Rights activist Khurram Parvez said it was the first time Indian parliamentarians had admitted that thousands had been subjected to enforced disappearance. “We believe their number is more than 8,000. We hope the government of India too will accept it and ensure a redress mechanism where all these disappearances are probed.”

The report feared a resurgence of militancy. “Although the anger is spontaneous, there was apprehension that this could be utilised by vested interests into an armed movement,” the release said, virtually echoing Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik.

The release said the delegation also found that the three central interlocuters — Dileep Padgaonkar, Radha Kumar and M.M. Ansari — did “not have the support of the people of Jammu and Kashmir”.

The findings pack a punch at Pakistan, too. The release said the “current movement” was still spontaneous, with “strong anger against Pakistan making that state irrelevant in the Valley”.

“All sections of political and civil society in the Valley,” it added, had “made it clear to the delegation that… the present protest was an indigenous Kashmiri movement… (and) they did not want to be part of Pakistan”.

At yesterday’s meeting, the participants called for revocation of the disturbed areas act, phased withdrawal of the armed forces special powers act from Srinagar and other urban centres and review of all cases of detention under the public safety act.

The report has asked the Centre to appoint “a permanent, high powered committee of parliamentarians to oversee Kashmir and the implementation of its recommendations as a first step” and immediate talks with all sections in Jammu and Kashmir.