The Hindu : The fatal pre-dawn knock

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Tuesday, Mar 25, 2003

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The fatal pre-dawn knock

By Our Special Correspondent

Photo: Nissar Ahmad

Muslims present in large numbers during the cremation of the Kashmiri Pandits, who were shot dead by unidentified gunmen at Nadimarg in south Kashmir on Monday.

NADIMARG MARCH 24. For 11 Kashmiri Pandit families of Nadimarg village in Pulwama district of south Kashmir, the pre-dawn period on Monday turned out to be a nightmare. Twenty-four members belonging to their families were gunned down by militants posing as Army personnel.

"When I heard a knock, I opened the door and saw some gunmen asking us to come out for searches being conducted to flush out the militants. They were wearing Army uniforms and spoke Urdu and Kashmiri," said 60-year-old Chuni Lal, who escaped with injuries. "Later, all of us were asked to assemble outside the police post and the indiscriminate firing started," he said adding "when one of them said he (Chuni Lal) is still alive I pretended to be dead and thus survived".

His son, Deep, blamed the authorities for the killings.

"We had approached the Deputy Commissioner, Anantnag, on Saturday and told him that we had some apprehensions and asked for security to be strengthened. But he refused to listen," he told The Hindu.

Another resident, Ramesh, who lost his father in the tragic incident, walked 7 km to the Zainpora police station to lodge a complaint but said "no reinforcements were sent". Shama, an elderly woman, fled to the nearby fields. "They (the police) surrendered their weapons to the militants and were nothing but lame ducks," said Bhushan Lal a resident adding that the security was insufficient.

The DIG, South Kashmir, M. A. Anjum, said the role of the police posted in the village was being investigated.

"This is purely an act of militants at the behest of Pakistan," said the Inspector-General of Police, Kashmir zone, K. Rajindra.

When this reporter reached the village, 22 bodies lay on the ground wrapped in shrouds, a reminder of the massacres of Sikhs in March 2000 and of same community in Wandhama and Sangrampora a few years back. At least nine of the dead were men aged between 60 and 80.

A large number of dumb-struck Muslims had gathered in the village to condole the deaths of their neighbours. "We are shocked and feel disturbed over the fact that it is being done in the name of tehreek (movement) and we get maligned," said Shameem Ahmed, a resident.

Only two Pandit families of the 11 who decided to stay back in the village in the early 1990s have survived.

Among the thousands who made a beeline for the village after the incident were the Deputy Chief Minister, Mangat Ram Sharma, Ministers Muzaffar Beig, Hakim Yasin, Peerzada Sayeed, G. A. Mir and Syed Bashir, the State Congress president, Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Panthers Party chief, Bhim Singh, the CPI (M) leader, M. Y. Tarigami, the PDP vice-president, Mehbooba Mufti, the Director-General of Police, A. K. Suri, and the Special Secretary in the Union Home Ministry, Ashok Bhandari. The Governor, G. C. Saxena, also condemned the killings. Mr. Azad alleged that it was a security lapse as "no proper security arrangements had been made".

Hurriyat calls for bandh

The All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leader and JKLF chairman, Yasin Malik, condemned the incident as "inhuman and barbaric".

He demanded an impartial probe. The National Front chairman, Naeem Khan, and the Democratic Freedom Party chief, Shabir Shah, also condemned the incident.

The Hurriyat has called for a Valley-wide bandh tomorrow.

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