SRINAGAR: The All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) and affiliated leaders have paid rich tribute to the victims of the Handwara and other massacres, mostly carried out by Indian forces in the month of January in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
The APHC spokesperson in a statement in Srinagar, on the 34th anniversary of the Handwara massacre, said that on this day, Indian occupational forces fired indiscriminately on participants of a peaceful procession in Handwara who were demanding their right to self-determination.
On January 25, 1990, Indian troops martyred at least 21 unarmed Kashmiris in north Kashmir’s Handwara town.
A few days earlier, on January 21, 1990, over 50 innocent people were martyred and hundreds were wounded when the occupied forces opened indiscriminate fire on peaceful protesters in the Gaw Kadal area of Srinagar.
APHC leaders Shahid Saleem, Farooq Ahmed, Adv. Arshad Iqbal, and human rights activist Ahsan Untoo, while paying rich tribute to the victims of the January massacres, appealed to the global community, especially the United Nations, to put pressure on India to conduct thorough investigations into these massacres and other killings.
On January 25, 1990, 17 people were ruthlessly assassinated in Handwara when BSF personnel opened fire on peaceful protesters. Another massacre took place on January 27, 1994, in Kupwara, resulting in the deaths of twenty-seven people and injuries to 36.
