A judge in Kashmir has officially declared Abdul Rashid Wani dead, almost 29 years after the timber trader disappeared while in military custody in July 1997. The court ordered that a death certificate be issued for Wani. This is the first time a court in the region has made such a ruling among thousands of similar cases filed by families of people who have gone missing (Al Jazeera).

Kashmir is a territory that India and Pakistan both claim and have fought over for decades. It has a large military presence, and many people have gone missing over the years after being taken into custody by security forces.

The judgment was based on a police investigation that identified an army major as the officer who took Wani into custody. The court said the major "had murdered Abdul Rashid Wani in his custody and had disposed of his corpse." The ruling lists the date of death as the same day Wani vanished in July 1997, but it says nothing about where his remains are (Al Jazeera).

Wani's family testified in court. His wife, the mother of his sons Junaid and Arsalan, said she could not remember the color or license plate of the vehicle used when her husband was taken away. Both sons also testified about their father's disappearance (Kashmir Times).

Junaid Rashid was five years old when his father vanished. He was 34 when a report on the ruling came out in July 2026 (Al Jazeera).

A group called the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) estimates that as many as 8,000 people have disappeared in Kashmir. In 2009, the group said it found 2,700 unmarked graves in remote mountain areas along the border that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan (Al Jazeera).

The broader context here is that Kashmir operates under special security laws that give the military wide powers. When civilian courts in the region find evidence of crimes by soldiers, those findings rarely lead to trials in military courts. So a court declaring someone dead does not mean anyone will be punished. The police investigation named a specific army major, and the court said he murdered Wani and disposed of the body. But the ruling only covered issuing a death certificate. Whether this leads to a trial in India's military justice system, or stays as a formal accusation with no prosecution, is the key question for people watching accountability in the region.

For the thousands of other families with similar cases, the Wani ruling gives them a legal precedent to point to. But each case has its own challenge: proving that someone was taken into custody and never returned, often using testimony from relatives who may not remember details like vehicle license plates, as Wani's wife could not. Wani's case succeeded because a police investigation identified a specific army officer. Many other petitions may not have that kind of evidence.

A death certificate also has practical benefits for families. It allows them to claim inheritance, receive pension payments, and legally remarry. For 29 years, the Wani family lived in a state of uncertainty, with Abdul Rashid Wani neither confirmed alive nor legally dead. This ruling ends that wait for one family. But thousands of other families are still waiting, and no one has been put on trial.