Islamabad, January 06, 2023 (PPI-OT):Legal Forum for Kashmir (LFK) has released an investigative report on the Sopore massacre carried out by Indian troops in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir on January 06, 1993. The LFK in a statement today said the archival study is based on the report titled, “Slaughter in Sopore”. The fact finding probe originally compiled by Institute of Kashmir studies (IKS) is eye-opener to the world that India and its troops have a history of perpetrating war crimes and crimes against humanity in IIOJK.
LFK said on the morning of January 6, 1993, Indian troops of 94 Battalion, Border Security Force, led by Commanding Officer S. Thangappan, shot and killed 46 people and injured dozens more. In connection with the carnage at Sopore, the following facts about State terrorism have been brought to light by local and international human rights organizations:
(a) State terrorism seems to have crossed all limits when you find such persons among the victims whose age is more than 55 years. The victims include an insane and sick man and a lady traveling in a bus.
b) State terrorism has not spared even the State government employees. In the list of victims, most of the victims are government employees.
(c) Fourteen passengers traveling in the RTC bus JKY 1901, were killed mercilessly on the spot inside the bus. This is clearly an example of state terrorism. There is hardly any parallel to such brutalities.
(d) Most of the killed and injured persons comprise the victims who were busy in shops or at other business establishments or were out attending to their job. These victims were all civilians engaged in earning their day-to-day livelihood.
(e) It also reveals the extreme level of degradation to which the Indian force has fallen when one finds at least four such victims who were shot at point-blank range and then thrown into the burning fire. Does humanity in the world find such an example elsewhere also?
(f) The State terrorism is so unsparing that even the state’s police personnel are not safe, One Mr. Mushtaq Ahmad Shah, s/o Ghulam Ahmad Shah, r/o Trehgam Kupwara, posted at Police Station Sopore, who, while on his duty of collecting the dead bodies of the victims of the state terror, was shot at, though he had a narrow escape and was only injured in the face.
(g) In the Sopore massacre the civilians killed were:
Seven in the age group of 50 and above
Thirty-three in the age group of 20 50
Five under the age of 20
Most of the human rights organizations of the world had quickly and sharply reacted to this carnage in Sopore. Amnesty International, the UK-based organization issued an initial report vide its extra-ordinary hand out No: UA 05/93. Al index ASA 20/03/93. Did. 8-1-93, 0 Sopore. In this report the Amnesty had expressed deep concern over the extra-judicial killings of people at Sopore by paramilitary forces and at the inadequacy of the Government’s response to effectively investigate the killings.
The organization was concerned that the investigation lacks independence required for a fully effective and impartial investigation. Human rights activists and some senior lawyers of Kashmir have argued that despite court directions in various cases no action has been taken against the armed forces involved in criminal cases and alleged excesses. They confront with court orders and evidence in support of their argument, and have impunity under various Indian black laws like AFSPA, and Disturbed Areas Act. Despite the passage of 3 decades, none of the perpetrators from 94th Battalion of BSF has been held accountable for martyring 46 civilians and injuring dozens more.
For more information, contact:
Kashmir Media Service
Phone: +92-51-4435548, +92-51-4435549
Fax: +92-51-4861736
Email: info@kmsnews.org
Website: www.kmsnews.org