Kupwara shuts to remember Jan 27, 1994 massacre victims

Kupwara: This frontier district observed a complete shutdown Saturday to pay homage to 27 civilians killed on this day allegedly by Army for observing shutdown on January 26. The strike call was given by Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL). Life came to a grinding halt in Kupwara, Trehgam, Kralpora, and other areas as shops and business establishments remained closed and roads wore a deserted look.
Recalling that fateful day a sources said “Around 11 am when shopkeepers were upping the shutters to start their routine business activities soldiers posted on (ROP)duty opened fire from all the directions killing 27 people, including traders, some policemen and other officials.”
“At 12 PM the firing stopped. After unleashing death, soldiers asked survivors to assemble in the ground and undergo an identification parade.” Sources said that no one was allowed to lift the bodies and take the injured to hospital. “A boy died in front of his father, whonbegged the soldiers to allow him to take his son to the hospital. But soldiers didn’t pay any heed towards hispleas,” the source added
The state government closed the Kupwara massacre case as “untraced” and blamed the army’s non-cooperation with the investigating agency for the closure of the case.
“Meanwhile Awami Ethad Party supremo and MLA langate Er Rasheed visited Kupwara to pay homage to the martyrs of 27 January 1994, later Kupwara police detained Er Rasheed in Branwari Kupwara while he was on his way to martyrs graveyard at Regipora area of Kupwara Town.”