1990 Gawkadal massacre

The Gawakadal massacre was named after the Gawakadal bridge in Srinagar, Kashmir, where, on January 20, 1990, the Indian paramilitary troops of the Central Reserve Police Force opened fire on a group of unarmed Kashmiri protesters, including women and children. At least 35 people were killed, but when the bodies were counted in the Police Control Room, it climbed to 50 (according to survivors, the actual death toll may have been as high as 280) in what has been described by some authors as "the worst massacre in Kashmiri history." The massacre happened just a day after the Government of India appointed Jagmohan as the Governor in a bid to control the mass protests by Kashmiris.

Background

Violence erupted in the Kashmir region of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir in November 1989, though unrest had been building in the state since the 1987 elections, which some believed were rigged by the Indian government and the National Conference to ensure the defeat of a coalition of pro-independence and pro-autonomy parties. Following the December, 1989 kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of Indian Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, the government decided to take a harder stance against the separatist rebellion. To that end, despite fierce opposition from the state government, New Delhi appointed Jagmohan, a known forceful administrator, governor of the state. As a result, the state government, then led by Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah resigned in protest, and the state went under President's rule.

On January 19, 1990, the night Jagmohan was appointed governor, Indian security forces conducted extensive, warrant-less, and therefore illegal house-to-house searches in Srinagar, in an effort to find illegal weapons and root out any hidden militants. Hundreds of people were arrested, and many Kashmiris claimed that they had been dragged out of their homes, and were beaten and abused by the Indian soldiers and the women molested. Both Jagmohan and Abdullah deny any involvement in the decision to carry out the raid.

The massacre

As word of the raids and molestations of women spread the next morning (January 20, 1990), thousands of Kashmiris took to the streets in protest, demanding independence. Jagmohan responded by putting the city under curfew. That evening, a large group of protesters shouting pro-independence slogans, reached Srinagar's Gawakadal Bridge over the Jhelum River. There, CRPF troops responded by surrounding the bridge and opening fire on the unarmed crowd, which included women and children, with automatic weapons.

Survivor Farooq Ahmed described to reporters how after the initial firing, the CRPF slowly went forward across the bridge, killing off the wounded and kicking corpses into the river:

"Just as I was about to get up I saw soldiers coming forward, shooting anyone who was injured. Someone pointed at me and shouted, 'that man is alive,' and a soldier began firing at me with a machine gun. I was hit four times in the back and twice in the arms."

Human Rights Watch recently met with an eyewitness who recalled the events at Gawakadal:

I remember that scene perfectly. There were so many people. I remember thinking that all of Srinagar must be out on the streets. They were shouting slogans and calling for freedom. There was a CRPF bunker just near the bridge.

Suddenly the soldiers opened fire. It was machine-gun fire and all I could hear is the rat-a-tat sound. At that time, we were not used to the sound of firing like we are today. I think everyone was shocked. No one had expected the troops to start firing. Soon, there were people falling down all over the place. I remember the man standing next to me saying, ‘I know I have been shot but I can’t feel anything.’ I looked at him. And then I saw his foot. There was a bullet stuck inside his shoe… All around people were groaning with pain. Everyone that could ran away. I stayed where I was in case they fired at me. I stood there for many hours. Finally, the police brought trucks and started taking the dead and wounded away. But they had been lying there for many hours before the trucks came. I remember that there were dogs sniffing at the bodies. I will never forget one sight. I saw a dog eating a human arm.

Indian authorities put the official death toll for the massacre at 28, though eyewitnesses like Ahmed believe that the actual death toll may have been 10 times higher International human rights organizations and scholars estimate that at least 50, and likely over 100 protesters were killed - some by gunshot wounds, other by drowning after they jumped into the river in fear.

Aftermath

In the aftermath of the massacre, more demonstrations followed, and in January 1990, Indian paramilitary forces are believed to have killed around 300 protesters. As a Human Rights Watch stated in a report from May, 1991, “In the weeks that followed [the Gawakadal massacre] as security forces fired on crowds of marchers and as militants intensified their attacks against the police and those suspected of aiding them, Kashmir’s civil war began in earnest.” MJ Akbar, editor of Asian Age newspaper, said of the massacre, "January 19 became the catalyst which propelled into a mass upsurge. Young men from hundreds of homes crossed over into Pakistan-administered Kashmir to receive arms and training in insurrection…Pakistan came out in open support of secession, and for the first time, did not need to involve its regular troops in the confrontation. In Srinagar, each mosque became a citadel of fervor." The public anger after the massacre had forced the government to clamp curfew for 21 days.

No known action was ever taken against the CRPF forces officials responsible for the massacre, or against the officers present at Gawakadal that night. No government investigation was ever ordered into the incident. Fifteen years later, the police case was closed and those involved in the massacre were declared untracable. No challan has been produced against any person in court.

See also

• Zakoora And Tengpora Massacre
• Bijbehara Massacre