Author:
Publication: Organiser
Date: April 21, 2002
Introduction: Massacre in Udhampur
Jammu: Within hours of Jammu-Kashmir's
Director General of Police boasting of police successes in containing terrorism,
another gory massacre took place in the remote Arnas area of Udhampur district
in Jammu division with the security agencies unable to nab the killer.
The killing of seven persons including
three minor children, two women and two others as also injuries to half
a dozen others in addition to burning of over a score of houses of Hindus
in the village of Dandli of Arnas area have added not only to a long list
of massacres in Jammu and Kashmir but also this incident has left behind
many questions that need answer by the men in authority. The secularist
brigade, not surprisingly, continues to maintain silence over atrocities
being meted out to Hindus in J&K.
It was on the night of April 7/8,
when at about 9 pm a large number of heavily armed terrorists came down
from the hills and descended on about a dozen of houses of minority community.
The brave villagers retaliated and
replied to the fire of the terrorists who had surrounded their houses from
different directions.
The fire continued for about eight
hours as the members of the Village Defence Committee put a tough resistance.
But the terrorists were not only in large numbers (some put the number
at about 60 to 70 and others say about 100) but also armed with deadly
weapons like the grenade launchers and tracer bullets.
According to one of the injured,
heavily armed terrorists cordoned the houses of 15 Hindu families at 9
pm on Sunday and announced to hand over rifles of VDC members as the members
of these families are in VDC. When VDC members refused to handover their
rifles at about 10 pm terrorists opened fire from all directions on their
houses. Immediately the four VDC members with their 303 rifles retaliated
the fire.
The four VDC members with 200 bullets
engaged terrorists with Pika guns, universal machine guns and A.K. series
automatic weapons and modern explosives like ULGM for more than eight hours.
In the meantime they also managed
to evacuate injured and also sent one person to the nearest Special Operation
Group (SOG) for the help. The SOG post is 20 km away from the village.
As the invaders failed to force
surrender by the VDC members, the terrorists rained grenades and fired
tracers to set the houses ablaze.
While four persons were killed due
to grenade splinters three were roasted alive because of fire, six other
injured received bullet and grenade injuries. These injured include two
young girls and a lady.
"Terrorists set ablaze some houses
with heavy firing but as most of the people were evacuated the number of
the killed were less otherwise casualty rate would have been very high",
said one of the injured at the Govt Medical College, Jammu. After torching
the houses, the terrorists escaped to a surrounding hill from where they
continued intermittent firing on the village. Local people came to rescue
of the victims and brought some of the burning houses.
Sources suspected hand of some local
terrorists also in the attack. Three to four youth of this village had
joined the ranks of Hizbul Mujahideen outfit last year after resigning
from VDC. Majority of the terrorists involved in the attack was foreigner
mercenaries.
Despite getting injured the members
of VDC did not lose heart and they even today talk about fight back if
they are provided sophisticated weapons and adequate ammunition.
The VDC members were having outdated
weapons like 303 rifles and just 50 rounds with each gun provided by the
authorities but still they fought for nine hours. Shri Krishan Singh, a
prominent social activist of the area, alleged that there was virtually
criminal negligence on part of certain Govt high-ups, if there was no connivance
to force the minorities to migrate from this area.
This painful act of barbarism could
be averted if the authorities concerned would have paid heed to the appeals
and requests of the people of the villages to provide a post of the special
task force (STF) and arms and ammunition to the VDC, he added and stressed
for independent probe to check any further carnage and migration of the
minority community.
He pointed out that this was the
fourth attack on this village since last year and third since February
this year. On February 26, a large group of terrorists had attacked the
village in which a member of VDC, Shri Angrez Singh, was injured but the
attack was repulsed by the VDC members.
He further said that during the
past about a week now the terrorists had been setting ablaze houses of
minority community and about a dozen of houses of minority community were
gutted before this last assault.
Since the eruption of terrorism
in the State the terrorists have committed over 60 incidents of massacres.
Out of those 45 have been committed in the hilly and remote areas of Jammu
region. These areas include in Doda, Udhampur, Mahore, Gool-Arnas, Budhal-Drahal,
Rajouri and those of Poonch-Mendhar.
The obvious purpose of these massacres
is to force the migration of minority communities and create communal divide.
But the most astounding part of the whole melodrama is that there was not
a single case in which the terrorists were arrested and dealt under law
of the land, although in several cases the locals were identified by the
victims.
The latest report said that many
families of Dandli and some other areas belonging to minority community
have migrated to Kanthan village of Reasi Sub-Division of Udhampur District.
(With inputs from Khajuria S. Kant)
