SRINAGAR: The situation in and around Kashmir Valley remained tense even as the authorities ordered an enquiry into the firing and arson in which at least 65 Persons were killed, 100 others wounded and property worth millions of rupees destroyed in Sopore town of north Kashmir on Jan.6

If confirmed, the death toll would be the worst in Kashmir since May 1990 when security forces opened fire on a funeral procession for the region’s leading Islamic cleric, killing 67 people.

The shootings came when security forces surrounded Sopore, a town of 50,000 people 25 miles northwest of Snnagar, the capital of Kashmir. The troops sealed all access to the town and began house to house searches for Islamic guerrillas who are fighting for secession from India.

Kashmir’s population is pre-dominancy Muslim, and resentment has grown in recent years over what is regarded as repressive treatment by the Hindu dominated central government.

Witnesses quoted by an Associated Press reports in Kashmir said that at one point, 15 soldiers opened fire on people in an open-air market. The troops then began setting fire to the market stalls and shops, and within hours the blaze had spread to five residential neighborhoods.

Telephone links to Kashmir have been virtually nonexistent for two months, and ill was impossible to confirm these and other accounts.

The Associated Press said the attack appeared to be in retaliation for the deaths of two soldiers killed recently by a land mine outside

Sopore. B.S.Bedi, director general of state police, told reporters that a probe had been ordered into the incident and those found guilty would be punished. He told this soon after his arrival in the curfew bound town of Sopore on Thursday morning.

Adviser to the state Governor, Lt Gen M.A.Zaki, and the DGP, rushed to Sopore for an on the spot assessment of the situation in the morning but had to leave the place within 15 minutes of their arrival as a hostile crowd of nearly 50,000 people raised anti India and pro Pakistan and pro-independence slogans.

Authorities imposed curfew in the township and the army was called out. People, defying curfew resonations, raised pro Pakistan and pro-independence slogans despite heavy deployment of the army and paramilitary forces. Some of them were scorching for those burned in the debris.

The civil administration headed by the sub divisional magistrate and district police chief. Sahai, admitted allegations leveled by the residents that security forces showered bullets and sprayed gun powder at more than 300 structures in five localizes of Armpora, Moslim Peer, Kralteng, Shallagund and Shahabad, in the township.

Eyewitnesses told reporters that four employees of the Bonlay Mercenulle Bank, one of them a female employee, were dragged out of their office and gunned down by security forces.

They alleged that two state road transport corporation buses, two trucks and some other vehicles passing on the road at that time were fired upon, killing all the passengers.

In a most tragic incident, a family of five, who were travelling in a Multicar, was bum alive when paramilitary forces set the vehicle ablaze amidst chants of “Bharat Mata Ki Jai, the residents alleged.

A pall of gloom descended all over Kashmir Valley as the news travelled that an unspecified number of people were killed and all the five localities were set ablaze by security forces in Sopore.

A spontaneous strike was observed and tempers ran high and people took to streets at several places in Srinagar, Anantnag, Pulwama, Baramulla, Badgam, Kupwara, and other major towns of the valley to protest against what they called “inhuman tactics” allegedly adopted by the army and paramilitary forces for the last four years. JAMMU:Ghulam Rasool Kar, president of the Jammo and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee(I) has demanded immediate judicial enquiry into the ghastly incident.

Kar along with several other senior leaders of the party in a Statement strongly condemned Te reported excessive use of force which resulted in the loss of precious lives and property. The Congress (I) leaders demanded exemplary punishment to the culprits.

Kar further said that the acts of subversion perpetuated by those who want to destroy peace and integrity of the country and have brought enormous miseries to the people of Kashmir Valley, should also be condemned.

Article extracted from this publication >>  January 15, 1993