1998 Wandhama massacre

The 1998 Wandhama Ganderbal massacre refers to the killings of 26 Kashmiri Hindus in the town of Wandhama in Jammu and Kashmir on 25 January 1998.[1] The victims included four children and nine women.[2][3] The Lashkar-e-Taiba/ Hizbul Mujahideen was blamed for perpetrating the massacre.[4]

Background

Wandhama

Location of attack.

Wandhama is a small town near Ganderbal in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir in India. The state had a large minority population of Hindu Kashmiri Hindus, over a half of a million of whom fled from the Kashmir valley to the Hindu-majority Jammu part of the state after militants began carrying out a systematic campaign of assassinations and intimidation against them.[5][6][7]

The massacre

On 25 January 1998, 26 Kashmiri Hindus living in the village of Wandhama were killed by unidentified gunmen. According to the testimony of one of the survivors of the incident, a 14-year-old Hindu boy named Vinod Kuman Dhar, the gunmen came to their house dressed like Indian Army soldiers, had tea with them, waiting for a radio message indicating that all Hindu families in the village had been covered. After a brief conversation they rounded up all the members of the Hindu households and then summarily gunned them down with Kalashnikov rifles.[8] The massacre was allegedly committed under Abdul Hamid Gada of the Hizbul Mujahideen and was timed to coincide with the Shab-e-Qadar, the holiest night of the month of Ramzan, when believers stay awake until dawn.[9] Gada was subsequently shot dead by Indian security forces in 2000.[10]

Reactions

The day after the incident, agitating Kashmiri Hindus clashed with police in the Capital, New Delhi, when they broke barricades and tried to force their way to the National Human Rights Commission. At least 11 Kashmiri Hindus were injured when they were hit by water cannon.[11]

Indian Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral joined the mourners in Kashmir's Wandhama village on 28 January. The Prime Minister was accompanied by Governor General K V Krishna Rao, Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and Union Minister for Environment Saifuddin Soz. He said:

I have come here to express my grief on behalf of the nation. The people of Punjab had unitedly defeated the nefarious designs of the enemy. The people of Kashmir will also defeat the designs.

There were protests in several refugee camps where Kashmiri Hindus have been interred since their ethnic cleansing.[12]

See also

• List of massacres in India
• 1998 Prankote massacre
• Gawakadal massacre
• Sopore massacre
• Handwara massacre
• Bijbehara massacre

Notes

International Terrorism. Darby, PA: Diane Publishing. 2001. ISBN 9780756701055.

References

1. "Villagers massacred in Kashmir". BBC News. 26 January 1998. Retrieved 26 November 2009.
2. "State Department comments on the Massacre". Archived from the original on 4 December 2014. Retrieved 25 November 2009.
3. International Terrorism p.157
4. "Violent 'army of the pure'". BBC News. 14 December 2001. Retrieved 25 November 2009.
5. Kashmir Massacre May Signal the Coming of Widespread Violence, The New York Times, 2003-03-25
6. Kashmir Massacre Shakes Village’s Sense of Fraternity, Los Angeles Times, 2003-03-30
7. Who are the Kashmir militants? BBC News - August 1, 2012
8. Dutta, Pradeep (28 July 2002). "I saw them kill my entire family". The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007.
9. Swami, Parveen (April 2000). "The killing of Hamid Gada". Archived from the original on 1 October 2003.
10. 'Top militant' killed in Kashmir, BBC, 14 March 2000
11. Wandhama’s endless night The Pioneer - 24 June 2008
12. "Migrant Pandits voted for end of terror in valley". The Tribune. 27 April 2007. Archived from the original on 12 March 2007. Retrieved 2 September 2018.