Lal Chowk, adjoining areas observe shutdown

Ishfaq Tantry

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, January 21

To mark the 25th anniversary of the Gaw Kadal massacre, a complete shutdown was observed in Lal Chowk and its adjoining areas here today.

People’s Political Party (PPP) chairman Hilal Ahmad War had on Sunday called for a shutdown in Lal Chowk and its adjoining areas on January 21 to commemorate and remember the victims of the Gaw Kadal massacre. The call was later supported by the moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.

In response to the call, shops and business establishments remained closed for the day in city’s commercial hub Lal Chowk and adjoining areas of Maisuma, Gowkadal, Basant Bagh, Mandir Bagh, Red Cross Road, Exchange Road, Budshah Chowk, Lal Chowk, Residency Road, MA Road, Abi Guzar, Polo View, Sarai Bala, Court Road, Kukar Bazar, Hari Sigh High Street and Goni Khan markets.

Calling for an “impartial and independent” probe by “international stakeholders” into all massacres involving civilian killings in J&K since 1990, Kashmir-based human rights group J&K Coalition of Civil Societies (JKCCS) in a statement today said, “The Gaw Kadal massacre anniversary serves as an important moment to account for state violence and impunity.”

It added that irrespective of the background of the perpetrators or the victims, the need of the hour is that all crimes, including incidents like the Gaw Kadal massacre, Handwara, Kupwara, Alamgiri Bazar, Zakura, Khanyar, Sopore, Bijbehara, Wandhama, Chittisingpora, Nadimarg, Kulhand massacres, should be investigated without any further delay.

The human rights groups added that despite all this information in the public domain, the authorities in India and the media have seldom discussed these tragedies, except for the killings of 209 Kashmiri Pandits.

“Almost all communities of Jammu and Kashmir have suffered in one way or the other. List of the sufferings and the tribulations witnessed by the people of Jammu and Kashmir are long, painful and still unabated,” the JKCCS said while calling for impartial and independent probe into all human rights violations, adding that these processes of justice could become the real confidence building measures and thus create an enabling and conducive atmosphere for resolution and peace building.

“The Gaw Kadal massacre is perhaps the first massacre in the history of Kashmir struggle in which signals of massacre were given well before conducting the massacre,” War said.