Srinagar
In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, posters have appeared in Srinagar and adjoining areas asking people to observe shutdown in the city on January 21 to mark the 31st martyrdom anniversary of Gaw Kadal massacre.
Over 50 people were killed and hundreds others were injured when Indian troops had opened fire on peaceful protesters in Gaw Kadal area of Srinagar on January 21 in 1990. The demonstrators were protesting against the molestation of several women by the troops in the area.
The posters, displaced by Jammu and Kashmir Peoples League while recalling the great sacrifices of the victims, reiterated the Kashmiris’ pledge to take the mission of the martyrs to its logical conclusion.
Jammu and Kashmir Peoples League Chief Organizer Dr Sarfaraz Ahmad Khan, while giving the call for shutdown in Srinagar on Thursday, said Gaw Kadal, Handwara and Kupwara remind Kashmiri people of the brutal Indian oppression. He said, the unresolved Kashmir dispute was the biggest hurdle to peace and political stability in the region, so the UN must take steps for peaceful settlement of the dispute.
He said that the Kashmiris were rendering sacrifices for the just cause of freedom and urged the international human rights organizations to take notice of the Indian illegal move to change the demography of Jammu and Kashmir.
“Forcible military occupation followed by such massacres symbolizes callousness under the garb of so-called democracy,” he said and added that the people of Kashmir were indebted to the martyrs who laid down their lives for freedom.
Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Political Party (PPP) Chairman, Engineer Hilal Ahmad War also gave the shutdown call on the anniversary of Gaw Kadal massacre.
Engineer War in a statement issued in Srinagar said, “This was the first major massacre in Kashmir since the creation of Kashmir problem, carried out by Indian occupational forces.”
He said, “This carnage was a well-thought-out plan of the Indian Home Ministry, which was aimed at paving the way for Kashmiri Pandits’ exodus from Kashmir.” War urged the international human rights organizations to set up an International Independent Tribunal to probe the Gaw kadal massacre.—KMS
