Kashmir Global ‘Come out, Kashmiri dogs’ Posted by admin Like 1 Srinagar, October 01: This day, in 1992, army went on a rampage in a small village in northwest Kashmir after a convoy came under attack from militants. In response the army troopers entered Batekote village in Handwara, a half kilometer away from the spot of attack, and shot dead ten residents and burned down houses and grain stores. Witnesses recall: Ghulam Mohammad Wani, who was aged 40 in that year, told a human rights group: “I was in the courtyard of my house when I heard gunshots from the direction of Bhakihaker at about 12:30 p.m. I went into the house for shelter. From there I saw soldiers burning down stacks of paddy [unthreshed rice] in the fields, and setting fire to houses. They entered our village, calling out, ‘Come out, Kashmiri dogs.’ They dragged people out of their houses.” Mohammad Jabbar, a farmer, who appeared to be in his 80s or older during the visit of the HR team: “It happened immediately after noon. I was in my courtyard with my sons, Akbar, 40, and Mahdi, 35 and two helpers, Hamid and Ramzan, who were grading and packing apples. We could hear firing from the soldiers as they entered the village. There were about 40 or 50 soldiers. I ran to my house. The soldiers dragged about 20 people out of their houses, both men and women, and beat them. They took my sons and the two helpers to the stack of rice in the compound next door. I followed them; they paid no attention to me. I saw them shoot my sons and the two workers several times.” A neighbor of Jabbar observed the shooting from a window: “The four men — two brothers and two workers — were dragged from the compound of the house next door, told to stand by a stack of rice paddy and shot dead. After they had been shot, the soldiers set fire to the paddy. I went out afterwards and helped drag the bodies away so they would not burn. One of them had part of his head blown off. Another had been shot in the chest and abdomen. There were five to eight bullet wounds in each of them.” A milk vendor recalled: File Picture.“Me and several of my neighbors watched from the compound of our house while some sixty troops poured oil and powder from cans they had brought with them and set fire to houses. Four houses in the area were burned, one after the other, along with a sawmill. Residents estimated the loss at Rs. 300,000 (U.S.$1,000). “ A woman witness recalled: “I and about twenty men and women were huddled under the stairs and in one room of a house about fifteen yards away from the other houses. She saw the soldiers set fire to the houses and shoot indiscriminately into some of them. We ran to this house because to get away from the fires. Then about 25 soldiers came over to the house. They dragged one man, Abdullah Dar, who was about 56, to the side of the courtyard. They said to him, “Show us the militants.” When he said he did not know any, they shot him once in the chest as he was standing there. A few minutes later, they dragged another man, Ghulam Nabi Mochi, 45, into the courtyard and beat him with their rifle butts. Then they dragged him to the other side of the courtyard and shot him three times: once in the jaw, then in shoulder and chest. The soldiers then ordered all the other people to go to into their houses and threatened to shoot them if they shouted.” A tailor recalled: “I was in the nearby town of Handwara when the incident took place. I returned home at about 7:00 p.m., and saw that several buildings on his property had been burned. The body of my father, Ghulam Rasool, 55, was lying on the ground with bullet wounds in the left side of the neck, the right thigh and a large wound to the abdomen, from which his entrails were protruding. He also had a deep cut nearly severing one arm below the shoulder. Two buildings, rice fields and orchards had been burned.” The dead included three women. Khonmi, 70; Shahmali, 35, daughter of Khonmi; and Saja (a blind relative), 60 were killed. A woman recalled: When I saw that my house was burning, I checked the house next door and saw Saja’s body lying in the courtyard. She had been shot in the neck. Shahmali’s body was inside the door; she had been shot in the chest. Khonmi was lying inside a room; she had been shot in the chest. All three were fully dressed. An official statement about the incident claimed: The incident actually relates to a village called Bhaki Haker near Handwara in Kupwara District. When the army was engaged in cordon and search operations in the village it was fired on by militants as a result of which one army personnel was killed and two injured. During exchange of fire the militants managed to disengage and escape. While escaping they were intercepted by another column of army located outside the village. The militants discharged a heavy volume of fire including fire from rocket launchers. Due to the firing a thatched hut with paddy stocked outside caught fire Before the fire could be contained with the help of fire tenders, which were rushed to the scene, 40 houses had been gutted. During the exchange of fire 10 civilians including three women also died. Senior District officials visited the site and an ex gratia relief of Rs.100,000 to the next of kin of the deceased villagers and one month’s free ration to those whose houses had been affected was immediately announced. During the search 1 AK 47 rifle was recovered from the area. Villagers dig graves a day after the killings on October 1, 1992. The HRW report on the killings notes: In fact, the government version is at variance with the location of the killings. The path taken by the troops as they entered and left the village formed a U pattern. The first killing, that of Ghulam Rasool, occurred near the road where the troops first turned into the village. The killings of the two brothers and two workers occurred several hundred yards further as the troops followed a path into the village. The third killings of Ghulam Nabi Mochi and Abdullah Dar occurred at the point where the troops turned right, parallel to the main road. The last three killed were in a house just at the point where the troops turned right again to exit the village and return to the main road. Such a pattern, and the manner in which the victims were killed, makes the possibility that the victims were killed in “cross-fire” highly unlikely. In addition, there was evidence of fire at at least four separate locations along the U-shaped path. Bodies of ten people killed in Handwara village on October 1, 1992. An editorial in the Kashmir Times had this to say about the killings: “According to reports, the militants attacked an army convoy returning after combing operation. While one jawan [soldier] was killed, the militants managed to escape. This was enough provocation for the security forces to act in revengeful manner against the local citizens. The army laid siege of the village for a retaliatory action in which it resorted to killings of innocents and even in acts of arson and rape. The typical official hand-out after the incident claimed that ten persons were killed in crossfire even though official sources could not explain the cause of arson and were silent about the claims of gang-rape. However, subsequently the police admitted that those killed were innocent villagers and none of the deceased was a militant. The Kupwara SP told newspersons who visited the village that FIR [First Information Report] 90 had been lodged, cases of murder and arson had been registered and the girls allegedly gangraped have been sent for medical examination. … The assurance about inquiry into the carnage has no meaning if those found guilty cannot be punished sternly and such excesses on innocent persons continue unabated. … To make false statements, as the officials do by claiming that ten villagers were killed by crossfiring is not only to condone the excesses committed by the security forces but also to add fuel to the fire. These can only make the people believe that what has happened is a part of state policy.” The testimonies have been taken from a report prepared by Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR). Courtesy; Kashmir Dispatch
Posted on: Sat, 05 Oct 2013 05:50:32 +0000