Srinagar: In occupied Kashmir, the All Parties Hurriyet Conference General Secretary, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, has paid glowing tributes to the innocent civilians killed by Indian troops in Pathribal and Barakpora on their 17th anniversaries.
The troops had killed five innocent civilians in Pathribal fake encounter and seven in Barakpora by opening fire on peaceful protesters.
Shabbir Ahmed Shah, who is under house arrest in Srinagar, in a statement said that the memories of these gory incidents were still afresh in the minds of Kashmiri people and they could never forget such barbarism of Indian occupational forces. He said just before these killings, Indian forces carried out a heinous massacre of Sikhs in Chattisinghpora in which 35 innocent people were killed. “And those families still wait for justice,†he added.
The APHC leader said that India made a failed attempt to defame the freedom movement of Kashmiris by perpetrating such bloody massacres on the arrival of the then US President, Bill Clinton, in New Delhi. He said though Indian CBI had confirmed that Indian forces’ personnel were involved in these heinous crimes and provided evidence against them but till date not a single culprit had been brought to book.
“Indian agencies claimed of having killed militants in a gunfight in Pathribal but after their bodies were exhumed, everything became crystal clear as the slain turned out to be civilians who were killed in a fake encounter,†he said.
Shabbir Shah expressed solidarity with the families of the victims and demanded fair investigation into these killings by an independent agency.