Srinagar
State Human Rights Commission chairman Justice (rtd) Bilal Nazki said according to police records 22 people were killed and 12 were injured in the infamous GawKadal massacre of 1990 and six out 22 families of the slain were provided with the relief while the whereabouts of rest 18 families were not known.
The response has come to petition filed by chairman International Forum for Justice and Human Rights Muhammad Ahsan Untoo who in 2012 had filed a petition before SHRC number SHRC/112/2012
The police details received by the SHRC from police station Kralkhud states that 22 people were killed and 12 were injured in GawKadal massacre of 1990.
The police reply states that only six families were traced whose relatives were killed and they were provided with the relief and rest of 16 families remained untraced as they had perhaps changed their residences as more than 25 years have passed since then. The police reply also states that records were not available as to whether any relief was provided to any of 12 injured persons.
The chairman SHRC also asked the state to file the status report of FIR 3/1990 registered in police station Maisuma.
Reacting to the police response and the relief provided to the NoKs of the slain, the petitioner said that the administration seems to be callous towards providing relief to a selected category and then claiming rest of 18 families couldn’t be traced. “This is total injustice with the families who were denied relief. How come is it possible that the families have remained untraced,” said the petitioner. He called for a fresh drive to locate the families of slain so that relief is provided to them.
He also castigated the state for not tracing the BSF men who resorted to indiscriminate firing on the peaceful protest in January 1990. “It’s an irony that BSF men involved in the massacre were identified and yet are roaming scot-free,” the petitioner said.
