by Umar Khurshid

Srinagar: The month of April was one of the bloodiest in Kashmir’s recent history claiming a total of 51 lives, including 20 militants, 18 civilians, 10 army men, 2 Para soldiers and a policeman.

On the first day of April, gunfights raged at three different locations in south Kashmir leaving a bloody trail of bodies and injured behind. At the end of the day, 20 people including 13 militants, 3 army men and 4 civilians were killed.

Also, the clashes around the encounter sites in Kachdoora, Draggad and Dialgam villages of South Kashmir left 150 youth injured; most of them with a bullet and pellet injuries.

April also witnessed a record number of shutdowns and strikes including a five-day shutdown by Joint Resistance Leadership against civilian killings in Kachdoora.

Interestingly Shopian district remained shut for 13 consecutive days against the bloodbath of two Shopian villages. Besides, different district headquarters and towns remained shut for a total of 27 times this month.

In April, south Kashmir saw regular CASO’s, some of which later turned into encounters.

The places where gunfights raged are Dialgam Islamabad, Dragadh, Kachidoora and Drabgam villages of Shopian district, Khudwani Kulgam, Kangan Pulwama and Laam forest area of Tral town of Pulwama district.

Twenty militants killed during encounters include Zubair Ahmad Turay, Nazim Nazir Dar, Rayees Ahmad Thoker, Ubaid Shafi Malla, Adil Ahmad Thoker, Yawar Ahmad Yatoo, Ishfaq Ahmad Malik, Aietemad Hussain Dar, Ishfaq Ahmed Thokar, Sameer Ahmed, Muhammad Abas Bhat, Waseem Ahmed, Ishfaq Ahmed, Musavir Ahmed, Ishfaq Ahmed, Abid Ahmed, Sameer Tiger and Akib Mushtaq Khan.

The civilians killed either in forces action during encounters or by unidentified gunmen included Mehrajuddin Mir of Okey Kulgam, Muhammad Iqbal of Khasipora Shopian, Zubair Ahmed Bhat, Mushtaq Ahmed Thokar, Gowhar Ahmed Rather and Amir Ahmed Lone of Kangan, Muntazir Ahmed and Manzoor Ahmed of Hajin Bandipora, Kifayat Ahmed of Moolu Shopian, Ghulam Nabi Patel of Rajpora, Shafaq Shabir of Hergam Shopian and Shahid Ahmed of Arihal Pulwama, Haseeb Nabi, Asghar Khan and Muhammad Asif, all residents of Jamia Mohalla Baramulla.

On April 11, four civilians identified as Sarjeel Sheikh of Khudwani, Bilal Ahmed Tantray of Frisal, Faisal Ilahi of Melhoora Shopian and Aijaz Ahmed Pala of Bijbehara were also killed after Government Forces fired on protesters during clashes in Wanimohalla area of Khudwani in Kulgam district.

The forces personnel who were either killed during encounters or in LOC cross firing are Ganoukar Rao, Havaldar Charanjeet Singh, Ajay Kumar, Latif Gojjri, Arvinder Kumar, Gunner Nilesh Singh, Sepoy Hetram, Jaki Sharma and Vinod Singh.

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