The Hawal Massacre is one of the deadliest massacres that will continue to haunt the hearts and minds of Kashmiri people for a long time to come. It was on this fateful day (21 May) in 1990 when Srinagar the city of Rivers and mesmerizing lakes was drenched in blood and tears. Thousands of Kashmiris have gathered outside the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) to bid farewell to Mirwaiz Moulana Muhammad Farooq, who was assassinated by unidentified gunman at his Nageen residence. He breathed his last at SKIMS, Hospital Saoura. Within a short span of time thousands of people gathered outside the Hospital to have last glimpse of the Mirwaiz.
The body of Mirwaiz Farooq was taken from the SKIMS Soura to Mirwaiz Manzil, Rajouri Kadal by a huge procession. When the procession reached Hawal area of old Srinagar along with the body of Mirwaiz, the paramilitary personnel stationed in a camp at Islamia College trained their machine guns at the peaceful procession. As a result 60 civilians were killed and hundreds injured. According to witnesses those shouldering the coffin of the Mirwaiz also sustained bullet injuries. Even the body of Mirwaiz also received several bullets fired by Indian Para-military troops. It is not just a single incident where mourners were put to death at such a large scale in fact the Kashmir’s recent history is awash with such dreadful tales of terror, which will continue to hurt the human conscience. Over the past three decades Kashmiris have witnessed several massacres at the hands of Indian occupation forces. The Hawal massacre is the first of such kind of incident in Kashmir but surely not the last one to be investigated to bring the culprits to justice. Despite the lapse of 28 years there is no headway in the probe into the incident. The then Governor had announced a ‘time-bound’ inquiry into the massacre but so far no action whatsoever had been taken against paramilitary officers who ordered troops to open fire on the mob.
In December 2017, the investigation wing of the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) found that the CRPF had identified 15 of its officers and personnel for indiscriminate firing that killed “35 civilians at Hawal in 1990”. But the SHRC investigation, however, could not ascertain if any action was taken against these CRPF officers and personnel. Similar inquiries have been sought in cases such as Chattisinghpora, Sopore, Hindwara, Pathribal, and Barakpora massacres but so far not a single army officer or soldier has been brought to justice. Since the successive Indian governments have been unwilling to carry out a thorough investigation into the horrific incidents of mass murder of innocent Kashmiris by its troops it is high time that an independent, impartial and international mission should be established to probe the killings in Indian held territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It is also imperative that India should be held accountable for the crimes its troops have committed against Kashmiris.
