Old wounds...

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 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. The next day, a procession came out from Mehjoor nagar and was joined by many processions from Civil lines areas and were moving towards the historic Khanqah Mulla Astan in Shaher-e-Khas. The unarmed procession was fired upon by CRPF at Gawkadal. 52 people were killed in the first massacre of Kashmir. THE WITNESSES OF A MASSACREProminent journalist and columnist, Zahir-ud-din was among the almost ten thousand strong crowd when firing started. "I was in the middle of crowd, when thefiring started. First one shot was fired in the air, then suddenly all the hell broke loose. I just ran.""Next day, we buried twelve bodies in our martyr's grave yard at Magarmal Bagh without knowing the identities of the dead. I think some of them were never identified. " A Shopkeeper at the Gawkadal, who refused give his name says, "The night after the massacre, our Imam sahib walked over the bodies of the dead and tried to find out if any one was alive. No one of us can forget the massacre."A senior resident of the area, Nazir Ahmed says, "The crowd was allowed all the way from Mehjoor Nagar and many processions from areas like Batamallo and Rajbagh. It was fired upon by a DSP Allah Baksh. The crowd was moving towards the Chotta Bazar area, where the army had molested women the previous day." "I can never forget that day. Never ever in my life." THE FAMILY OF THE VICTIMSThe day Abdul Rouf Wani's result came in the march of 1990, no one in his home rejoiced. Rouf had been dead for two months.Rouf was one the protestors in the procession, when CRPF started firing on the unarmed crowd. Rouf was snatched the Light machine gun of one of the CRPF men and put his body in front of the gun, saving the lives of many in the process.Rouf was hardly twenty when he gave his life to save the lives of people in that crowd. His elder sister, Zulehuma Bandey, sobs when she talks about her brother, " When he died my other brother said that he was not made for this world. He was always different from all of us.""When he was young he once told me that he wanted to die a martyr's death. Every breath he took was in the way of the Allah." Rouf had spent the night before the massacre in the Masjid . "He spent the whole night reciting the Quran . He had just come home two days before from Gulmarg after a month. He would often be out of homes as a part of the Tabligh movement, preaching Islam." Zulehuma belives that her brother's sacrifices would not go in vain. "Today we are the same place where we were in 1990. People have sold the blood of martyr's but their sacrifices will not go waste. I cry when I think that my brother's generation has all died." Zulehuma has only one question for the Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, "Has he ever asked himself where are the people of his age in Kashmir? They are all dead."


TASIM ZAHID