[Reader-list] Wandhama massacre: Case Closed

[Pawan Durani]

 *Wandhama massacre: In police files, it's a closed chapter
Shabir Ibn Yusuf *
http://www.kashmirtimes.com/
SRINAGAR, Jan 24: *Police has closed the case related to massacre of Pandits
at Wandhama with the conclusion that the gun men behind the massacre are
untraced.*  During the intervening night of January 25 and 26, 1998, twenty
three Kashmiri Pandits were killed by unidentified gunmen in Wandhama
village of Ganderbal. "The case has been closed as no one involved in the
massacre was identified," says police.
The gruesome killing of 23 Kashmiri Pandits on that day triggered off fresh
migration of Pandit families. Several of the few Kashmiri Pandit families
who had endured the turmoil and were against the migration, migrated after
the massacre. The massacre of Pandits at Wandhama went uninvestigated
despite repeated demands by the Kashmiris.
Hurriyat Conference observed a protest strike demanding an inquiry. Amnesty
International's request to investigate Wandhama carnage was refused.
After the incident a fear psychosis gripped the minority community in the
valley.
The indiscriminate firing on the Pandits spared 16 year-old Manoj Kumar
Dhar, and, he was the lone eyewitness to the massacre. In a statement to
police on that night, Kumar said a group of masked gunmen came to his house
at about 11:30 pm and forced all those inside to come out. "I jumped out of
the wall of my house. As soon as my father, brothers and sisters came out, I
saw the gunmen shooting them. They were crying and begging for life,'' he
had told the police.
Kumar had further told police in his statement, "One of the gunman spotted
me and asked me to come out as well but I hid myself beneath a heap of saw
dust stored in the house. They then opened fire from all sides of the house
and probably believed that I too was killed in the firing. I can not
identify them but they were not speaking Kashmiri."
Almost all the people of the area were in the mosque as it was the holy
night of Shab-e-Qader. Police recorded further statements from the locals.
"We came to know about the killings only when a group of our women came
wailing," Abdul Ahad, a villager told the police.
Meanwhile, the police that day claimed to had recovered a letter in which an
unknown militant organisation, Intikaam-ul-Muslimoon, had claimed
responsibility for killing of Pandits. The letter that was tagged to one of
the bullet-ridden bodies disclosed that this was the beginning of a series
of such attacks aimed at taking revenge for the killings in Handwara.
Police said that the villagers from both the communities blamed the "unwise"
shift of an army camp from the area seven months before the incident.
Militant groups at that time had blamed security agencies for the massacre
and denied their involvement. The then minister of state for home Ali
Mohammad Sagar had also criticised the role of army saying the army camp
located only some kms from Wandhama did not react in time and reached the
spot very late. This had trigerred off a major controversy between Sagar and
army.
Sub Divisional police officer Ganderbal Showkat Ahmad, who was then Station
Hose Officer for the area told Kashmir Times, "*The case has been closed, as
no one was identified as the killer of these Pandits."*