Tasenda

19 years on the blood of Gawkadal massacre victims seems to have dried up, the only reminder that this road has been witness to Modern Kashmir's first massacre is a small tombstone. But , the tombstone usually remains hidden behind the auto-rickshaws that now stand guard at the spot.But the victims families and survivors of the massacre, still fight the memories of the massacre. For the many of the families, the fateful day of January remains as fresh as the yesterday's memories.To that end, despite fierce opposition from the state government, New Delhi appointed Jagmohan, an 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, house-to-house searches in Srinagar, in an effort to find illegal weapons and root o...

In 1990 he was the man who had made the memorial for the Gawkadal martyrs and helped fix it at the crossing where 52 Kashmiris had were massacred by the CRPF in 1990. Today along side that small grave stone, is a tap which has inscription over it, which commentrates the life and death of Showkat Ahmed Khan.Showkat Ahmed Khan was a young man when had witnessed the Gawakadal massacre on Jan 21 1990. The massacre had changed the life of Showkat, he was so moved that he got a grave stone made and fixed at the Gowkadal crossing. In the initial days of the 1990's, Showkat along with the rest of the youth of the area were greatly inspired by the JKLF. The tombstone still has JKLF written at its bottom.But Showkat faced the same fate as the 52 people in 2002. On 12 March 2002, Showkat's body was found in Shalteng area, after he had been picked up by the Infamous STF. His father in law, Nazir Ahed says that Showkat's face had been almost split in the half by bullets.Showkat left a s...