President of the Jammu and Kashmir Salvation Movement (JKSM), Altaf Ahmed Bhat. PHOTO: EXPRESS
ISLAMABAD:
As Kashmir marks another grim anniversary of the Gaw Kadal massacre, senior Hurriyat leader Altaf Ahmed Bhat has renewed demands for international accountability, calling for an independent global investigation into the gross human rights violations and war crimes committed by Indian forces in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
In a statement issued from Islamabad on the eve of the anniversary of the massacre, the president of the Jammu and Kashmir Salvation Movement and senior leader of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference paid solemn tribute to the martyrs of Gaw Kadal, who were killed on January 21, 1990, when Indian forces opened indiscriminate fire on peaceful protesters in Srinagar.
He said the massacre was one of the darkest chapters in Kashmir’s contemporary history and a clear symbol of the brutal response to unarmed civil resistance.
Recalling the events that led to the bloodshed, Altaf Ahmed Bhat said protesters at Gaw Kadal had gathered against the alleged sexual abuse of Kashmiri women by Indian troops a day earlier, only to receive bullets instead of justice.
More than fifty civilians were killed and hundreds injured, many of them permanently.
“The victims of Gaw Kadal were not combatants. They were ordinary people demanding dignity, security and accountability. Their only ‘crime’ was raising their voices,” he said.
Altaf Ahmed Bhat noted that despite the passage of thirty-five years, no one has been held accountable for the massacre. “The denial of justice to the victims and their families is not an exception; it reflects a broader pattern of institutional impunity that has prevailed in occupied Kashmir since 1989,” he said.
He stated that the people of Kashmir have paid an unbearable price for demanding their internationally recognized right to self-determination.
Citing documented data, he said that since 1989, nearly ninety-six thousand Kashmiris have been killed, including thousands in custody or mock encounters.
Hundreds of thousands have been arrested, tens of thousands of homes destroyed, thousands of women widowed, children orphaned, and women subjected to sexual violence.
“These are not isolated incidents. They represent a sustained campaign of repression against an entire population,” he added.
He stressed that the Kashmir issue is not simply a political dispute but a humanitarian crisis that demands urgent global attention.
“When massacres like Gaw Kadal go unpunished, it encourages new violations. The silence of the international community has a cost, and Kashmiris continue to pay for it with their lives,” he commented.
Altaf Ahmed Bhat urged the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the European Union and other international human rights bodies to launch impartial investigations into massacres, enforced disappearances, custodial killings and other serious violations in occupied Kashmir.
He called on world powers to go beyond statements of concern and take concrete steps to ensure accountability.
