On December 25, 1994, when the world was celebrating Christmas, a village in north Kashmir was preparing for the funeral of their dead killed at the hands of government forces.
Nine civilians fell to the bullets of Border Security Forces in the frontier town after being made to stand in a line in the village during a cordon and search operation.
Recounting the horrors of the day, locals said that on December 21, 1994, the forces laid a cordon and search operation in the village, which was lifted after a few hours.
“They frisked the entire locality and during the freezing cold of the night, the locals were made to stand in a ground and searched, but the forces could find nothing,” a newspaper reported.
After the cordon was lifted, the forces came back on the morning of December 23, at around 11 a.m. After asking the locals to come out of their houses, the forces started frisking the houses and again, they could not find anything, the local said, adding, “At around 9 a.m., the women were asked to return to their houses, but the men of the locality were not.”
And at around 10 a.m., the next morning, on December 24, the pheran-clad men were asked to return to their houses. “When we returned to our houses, we heard gunshots and we rushed to the ground, again,” he said.
The forces were rushing back to their vehicles. “Nine people had been shot dead without any provocation,” he said.
The victims were identified as:
Mohammed Shafi Shah
Khizar Mohammed
Farooq Ahmed
Abdul Rashid Khan
Wali Muhamd Mir
Ab Rashid Dar,
Salam Din
Aif Din Monga
Manzoor Ahmed
Massive protests followed after which a curfew was imposed and the locals were not allowed to bury the dead.