Srinagar, Aug 30 (IANS): Dozens of families of 'disappeared persons' in Jammu and Kashmir Saturday staged a peaceful protest here to commemorate the international day of disappeared persons.

Carrying banners and staging a street theatre to highlight their plight, family members of the 'disappeared persons' held the protest in a park here.

Separatist leader and chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Muhammad Yasin Malik also joined them.

The police did not intervene as the protesters remained peaceful and left after staging the protest.

The term 'disappeared persons' is used to describe those hundreds of local residents who were either picked up by security forces or separatist guerrillas during the last 23 years in the state and whose whereabouts have remained a mystery since then.

The wives of these people are known as 'half widows' since legally they have not been declared widows in the absence of proof that their husbands are dead.

The families of these 'disappeared persons' have formed a forum known as the APDP (Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons).

The APDP is headed by Parveena Ahangar, whose son also disappeared under mysterious circumstances during this period in the Valley.

These family members have been running from pillar to post to find out what happened to their loved ones.