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[1] (according to survivors, the actual death toll may have been as high as 280[2]) in what has been described by some authors as "the worst massacre in Kashmiri history."[3]
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 were rigged by the Indian government and the National Conference to ensure the defeat of a coalition of pro-independence and pro-autonomy parties.[4][5] 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 lead by Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah resigned in protest, and the state went under President's rule.[6]
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.[1] 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.[3] Both Jagmohan and Abdullah deny any involvement in the decision to carry out the raid.[1]
The massacre
As word of the searches 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.[2]
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."[2]
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[2] 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.[3]
Aftermath
The Gawakadal massacre went on to become a watershed in the Kashmiri independence movement. More demonstrations followed, and in January 1990 alone, Indian paramilitary troops are believed to have killed over 300 protesters[7] 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.”[1] 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-Occupied 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."[1]
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.[1]
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e f Everyone Lives in Fear: Patterns of Impunity in Jammu and Kashmir. "Human Rights Watch." 2006
- ^ a b c d Dalrymple, William. Kashmir: The Scarred and the Beautiful. "The New York Review of Books." May 1, 2008.
- ^ a b c Schofield, Victoria. Kashmir in Conflict: India, Pakistan and the Unending War
- ^ Akbar, MJ. Exerting Moral Force. "Time Magazine," September 30, 2002.
- ^ Ganguly, Sumit. Explaining the Kashmir Insurgency: Political Mobilization and Institutional Decay. "International Security," vol. 21, no. 2.
- ^ Focus shifts to Raj Bhawan, J-K heads for Governor's rule. "Express India." July 8, 2008.
- ^ Mirza, Waheed. Growing up in Kashmir's war zone. "BBC News." August 16, 2007