Hawal Massacre

Do you remember Asiya and Neelofar? 9 years ago, they went missing in the evening while returning home from their family orchard in Nagbal area of South Kashmir’s Shopian. On the following morning, their dead bodies were found raped near the Rambiara Nala. Their bodies were mysteriously found – deeply wounded, their clothes in tatters. The locals say that they had been ravished and murdered by the Indian security forces present in the area, but the Indian inquiries subtly refuted any possibility of rape. Nine years on, the justice eludes, there is no hope for it now anymore. The case has been closed with a conclusion that both died from drowning. Only in Kashmir can someone drown in a knee high stream with their clothes tattered and bodies bruised. In the run-up to the 2014 elections, MehboobaMufti had been very vocal about it & had made this double rape and murder a central issue in the area. She had promised justice if her party was voted to power. She buried it af...

I saw people climbing unsuccessfully the fencing of a veterinary office. The CRPF men were targeting them as well. Several injured fell on me but, somehow I managed to hold my nerves. Then firing stopped finally, I saw CRPF men with their guns oozing smoke from the windows of the college building.They had taken positions along the wall of the college and I could see them in the bunker. After some time, the CRPF men came out of the college and began searching the pockets of the dead. They also removed earrings from the women martyrs. When they left, the people of the area showed exemplary courage and started lifting the dead and injured in hand driven carts. The injured were taken to the hospital in carts. The CRPF posted at Saidapora stopped them saying ambulances were arriving. The people waited for sometime for the ambulances. However no ambulances arrived and people marched ahead. –Tahir Ahmad Baba, a witness to the blood-spattered incident that took place on this...