TODAY IN KASHMIR HISTORY. 1993: Bijbehara Massacre On October 22, 1993, around 15,000 persons held protests in the south Kashmir town of Bijbehara against the forces’ siege of the Hazratbal shrine in Srinagar. A procession started marching through various streets with slogans for lifting the siege and in support of Kashmir’s freedom. As the marchers reached the main road running through the town, they faced a large contingent of the Border Security Force, or the BSF. With the whole procession at the upper end of the road near the Gooriwan locality, BSF personnel closed in on the protestors from three sides and opened indiscriminate fire, killing at least 37 people on the spot and leaving over 200 others injured. The firing continued for nearly twenty minutes, with the troops targeting the crowd and those who lay injured on the ground - in fact anyone who showed any visible movement or signs of life. The dead included a Pandit boy who had joined the protestors on the way. When people from outside the procession tried to rescue the injured, they too were targeted, including medical and paramedical staff. No ambulances or medical staff was allowed access to the fallen injured, even though the hospital was only yards away from the massacre site. According to doctors at the hospital that day, most of the injured could have been saved had ambulances and medical aid been allowed to reach the victims. An enquiry was ordered by the government which admitted the BSF’s role in the massacre. However, no arrests were made and nobody has been brought to justice to this day. The day is observed every year to commemorate the sacrifice of the martyrs.
Posted on: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 08:02:15 +0000