The All Parties Hurriyat Conference Azad Jammu and Kashmir (APHC-AJK) chapter has paid tributes to the martyrs of the Sialan Poonch massacre on their 25th martyrdom anniversary. The APHC-AJK chapter organized a seminar at its office in Islamabad on Thursday, to pay tributes to the martyrs of Sialan. Senior Hurriyat leader Mohammad Farooq Rahmani presided over the seminar while Dr Mohammad Aslam was the chief guest.
The personnel of Rashtriya Rifles of Indian Army martyred 19 family members of Shaheed Imtiaz Ahmed Sheikh known as Major Gul in Sialan area of Sarnakot in Poonch district on the night of 3rd and 4th August 1998. The martyrs included the men, women and children of the families of Lassa Sheikh, Ahmed Din Sheikh and Hasan Muhammad.
Addressing the seminar, the Hurriyat leaders lamented that the families of the martyrs were still waiting for justice even after a long period of 25 years. They said a case was registered against the killers of the Indian Army after people’s strong protest but the criminals have not been punished till date and they are roaming freely.
The speakers said on July 25, 1998, almost a week before the massacre, five members of the same family, including three women, a man and a child, were brutally killed by Indian soldiers in the Kotal area of Doda district in the dark of night.
The Hurriyat leaders said that the killer Indian officials were dressed in civilian clothes and were also walking freely. They said the great sacrifices of the martyrs will never go waste and the Kashmiris will definitely get freedom from Indian rule.—INP
