January 6,1993: When BSF Butchered 57 Innocent Civilians In Sopore

Shortly after the incident, BSF troopers from 94th Battalion butchered 57 civilians. People who are witness to that gruesome mas­sacre still shiver while narrating the ordeal. They say marauding troopers dragged an SRTC bus (JKY-1901) driver out from the vehicle and pumped bullets into the bodies of passengers killing 20 of them on spot. “After killing the passengers, the troopers started spraying gun powder, petrol and kerosene on the surrounding buildings and then torched them.”

“Among the 57 dead civilians, 48 died due to bullet shots and 9 were burnt alive. More than 400 com­mercial establishments and 75 res­idential houses were set ablaze in five localities of Sopore- Armpora, Muslimpeer, Kralteng, Shallapo­ra, Shahabad and Bobimir Sahab. Among the gutted buildings there were some landmark buildings like Women’s Degree College and Samad Talkies.”

“On that fateful day a blast rocked New Colony Sopore early morning. Everything was normal when we heard a single gunshot. When people started running for cover, more gunshots reverber­ated in atmosphere. We couldn’t comprehend anything when we watched BSF personnel targeting every civilian with bullets. Days after the gruesome massacre, we came to know that a militant had decamped the riffle of a BSF trooper and to avenge that inci­dent, they targeted innocent civil­ians,” said eyewitnesses adding that casualties could have been in hundreds if Jammu Kashmir Po­lice could not have intervened and stopped the marauding troopers. “A local police officer saved more than 20 civilians who were trapped in a gutted building,” they said.

Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society Chairman and renowned Human Rights activ­ist Parviz Imroz told CNS that 24 days after the massacre govern­ment set up a one man Commis­sion of Inquiry on 30 January 1993 comprising of Justice Amarjeet Choudhary. “Between, 30 Janu­ary 1993 and 30 April 1994, the Commission visited Jammu and Kashmir only once. The govern­ment described the inquiry as a “farce” and chose not to extend the term of the Commission. No report was therefore submitted by the Commission. Simultaneously the CBI was tasked with the in­vestigation in January 1993 itself and took 20 years (January 1993 to July 2013) to carry out investiga­tions, only to seek closure of the case citing lack of evidence.”

Parviz Imroz added that the ‘farcical’ actions of the State are in contrast to the available evidence that could be used to prosecute personnel of the 94th Battalion, BSF. “The CBI record itself has names of ten BSF officers/person­nel who could be indicted in this case, including the then DIG R.S. Jasrotia, Sector Headquarters, BSF, Baramulla and Commandant S. Thanggapan, 94th Battalion, BSF. Instead, the CBI has sought to rely on a BSF court-martial to close investigations (despite never seeing the court-martial file as the BSF refused to share the same).”

Imroz said that it was clear from the information gathered through RTI, that the court-martial process by the BSF was only an attempt to cover up the massacre as the seven BSF personnel prosecuted were ul­timately found guilty of only “Mis­chief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy houses, etc”, and the maximum punishment awarded was “3 months rigorous imprisonment in force custody”.

The survivors of the Sopore mas­sacre had contested the closure of the case, and the CBI was asked by the TADA court, Srinagar, to produce the entire investigation record on 20 January 2014.

“Despite earlier court orders to the same effect, the CBI deliber­ately refused to share the record, so as to further delay the proceed­ings. The survivors have sought to challenge the CBI before the court as this is a way to contest the lies of the State, and its attempt to cover up the Sopore massacre of 1993. Af­ter the massacre, which resulted into huge loss of life and property, the denial of justice is only an en­dorsement of the crime by the In­dian State,” he said. (CNS)

Jan 6, 1993: A Town Torched

By Sameer Bhat

There was sound of a huge bang that morning, like someone blowing up a cartful of dyna­mite. Just before the cockcrow. Most of the townspeople were asleep. The dawn prayers had thin attendance, mostly because it gets very cold in January. By nine o’clock a military patrol was out, doing rounds of the main marketplace. Suddenly gunmen emerged from a narrow alley and shot random bullets at the party be­fore quickly disappearing in the maze that old Sopore is. Taken rather off guard, the security detail ran back to their barracks only to emerge again as Frankenstein’s monsters, spitting hell fire. In the next fifty odd minutes, they murdered fifty five people in cold blood. And burnt the town down.

Even after all these years nobody knows for sure what transformed the BSF party into the heartless creatures that they became — that cold January morning. Hapless people, trapped in flames, had only two choices to make and both, it turned out, cost them dearly. Stepping out of their shops meant getting bumped off on the spot. Those who hid in their shops were roasted alive. Many people who were killed on January 6, 1993, were buried without their families being able to see them one last time. The dead bod­ies had faces — that smiled, loved and beamed a few hours back — too dis­figured to be kissed a final good bye. Monsters seldom heed tears.

An unfortunate bus, half-full with passengers, on its way to Sopore got caught up in the frenzy. The driver, oblivious to the savagery of the 94th battalion BSF, was flagged down. Soon charcoal gray powder blew into the vehicle. Terrified passengers froze in their seats, their hands still inside their Pherans. A stash of gunfire lit the bus up. The ill-starred men and women banged at the window-panes, begging to be let out, but their screams met no saviors. The nearby shops were burn­ing in maroon fire with real people in them. A hundred thousand books in the local women’s college were turning to dark dust in the library. The foot sol­diers of the world’s largest democracy looked on with a ghoulish glee.

Entire families were wiped out on that January morning 19 years back. A respected Sufi Pir lost six members of his immediate and extended fam­ily. His two grandsons, two nephews and two cousins. The old man was unwell in his bed when news of the doom came. Women began to pull their hair out and grown-up men wept inconsolably in his mud-and-brick three storey home, often fre­quented by devotees. Later when the corpses of all the six young men were lined up in the lawn, someone asked the Sufi if he wanted to come out and have a last look at the lads. ‘Oh yes’, the old man said and as someone walked him outside he whispered in the most feeble voice, ‘I had a dream last night and they told me that we shall take you to hear things I never imagined. I think this is the Taebeer’.

I feel somewhat uneasy writing this, recalling mostly from memory, from the pastiches of ugly nightmares of growing up in Kashmir of the 90s. Ofcourse I was too young to compre­hend how people in flesh and blood could get so godawful and burn fel­low humans alive. It smelled of fear and flesh. We heard the wails com­ing from a distance. That evening the smoke’s twist was awfully slow.

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