By Sheikh Mushtaq

SRINAGAR, India, April 2 (Reuters) - Kashmir's main separatists urged Amnesty International on Wednesday to help identify human remains in nearly a thousand unmarked graves discovered by a local human rights group over the past year.

The graves were found in cemeteries in 18 villages along a military control line dividing India and Pakistan, the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) said in a weekend report after carrying out a year-long survey.

The APDP, which estimates around 10,000 people went missing during the nearly two-decade-old separatist revolt in Kashmir, says many of the missing could have ended up in these unmarked graves.

"We appeal to Amnesty International and human rights groups to identify the people buried," said Shabir Shah, a leader of the All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference.

"This is the tip of the iceberg. A serious survey and investigation will discover more such graveyards where innocent people are buried after security forces killed them."

Authorities have denied the allegations, saying such reports were intended to malign Indian security forces, and the graves were those of militants killed by them over the years.

"These are baseless claims. Security forces have nothing to do with the burial of the people," army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel A.K. Mathur said.

Indian troops, fighting separatist militants in Kashmir, have been accused in the past of murdering innocent civilians in staged gun battles and passing them off as separatist militants to earn rewards and promotions.

Last year authorities charged more than a dozen policemen and soldiers with killing at least two civilians in fake gun battles and claiming they were militants.

The killings triggered widespread protests in Kashmir.

"During our survey villagers reported most of the dead bodies were of Kashmiris and not foreign militants as claimed by the security forces," said Parvez Imroz, spokesman for APDP. "This deserves a probe."

Militants from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir have been fighting alongside Kashmiri militants across the region.

Officials say the level of violence has fallen significantly since India and Pakistan, both of whom claim the region in full but rule it in parts, began peace talks in 2004.

But people are still killed in daily shootouts and occasional bomb attacks.

A soldier, a villager, and two senior members of the region's largest militant group, Hizbul Mujahideen, were killed in a gun battle in south Kashmir late on Tuesday evening, police said.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed since an armed revolt against New Delhi's rule broke out in 1989. (Editing by Krittivas Mukherjee and Jerry Norton)

AlertNet news is provided by