Wandhama massacre
Encyclopedia
The 1998 Wandhama massacre refers to the murder of 23 Kashmiri Pandit
Hindu
s in the town of Wandhama in the Muslim
-majority India
n state of Jammu and Kashmir
on 25 January 1998. The victims included four children, nine women and 10 men. Lashkar-e-Taiba
has been blamed for prepetrating this massacre
.
The attackers also demolished a Hindu temple and a house.
in India
. The state had a minority population of Hindu Kashmiri Pandits, over a quarter 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. The Wandhama Pandits consisted of Pandits who chose to remain in their homeland despite the rise in violence, as well as those Pandits who returned to the region from refugee camps in Jammu.
s 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 Pandit 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 The massacre was allegedly committed by Abdul Hamid Gada of 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. Gada was subsequently shot dead by Indian security forces in 2000.
Kashmir's Divisional Commissioner S L Bhat, who knew some of the Pandits personally, was quick to arrive at the scene of the carnage. He said, "This is the worst incident I have witnessed, I believe foreign militants were involved in the massacre".
After the massacre, the local Hindu temple was destroyed, as were the houses of the Pandits.
Roots In Kashmir a frontline worldwide organisation of Kashmiri Pandit Youth also expressed shock over the incident. The group came out strongly against the Government attitude while conducting the investigation.
On the 10th anniversary of Wandhama Massacre; Roots In Kashmir, Coordinator, Aditya Raj Kaul said:
Panun Kashmir Convenor Agnishekhar said:
The day after the incident, agitating Kashmiri Pandits clashed with police in the Capital, New Delhi, when they broke barricades and tried to force their way to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). At least 11 Kashmiri Pandits, including Panun Kashmir convenor Dr Agnishekhar, were injured when they were hit by water cannon. Dr Agnishekhar fell unconscious and rushed to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
In a press release, the Indo-American Kashmir Forum (IAKF) in Washington D.C. condemned the carnage and demanded military protection.
The Indo-American Kashmir Forum joined their apex organization in North America, the Kashmiri Overseas Association (KOA), in "condemning this brutal outrage on the Pandit minority in Kashmir":
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 (retired), Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah and Union Minister for Environment Saifuddin Soz. He said:
There were protests in several refugee camps where Kashmiri Pandits have been interred since their ethnic cleansing.
In 1999, The Jammu and Kashmir Yatheem Trust, one of the few non-governmental welfare organisations working in Kashmir, made an attempt to remedy this. Its survey placed the orphan population in the six districts of the Valley at 15,308
Local law enforcement authorities have been criticized for being dysfunctional in protecting the minority Hindus in Kashmir.
Kashmiri Pandit
The Kashmiri Pandits are a Hindu Brahmin community originating from Kashmir, a mountainous region in South Asia.-Background:The Hindu caste system of the region was influenced by the influx of Buddhism from the time of Asoka, around the third century BCE, and a consequence of this was that the...
Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
s in the town of Wandhama in the Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
-majority India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n state of Jammu and Kashmir
Jammu and Kashmir
Jammu and Kashmir is the northernmost state of India. It is situated mostly in the Himalayan mountains. Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south and internationally with the People's Republic of China to the north and east and the...
on 25 January 1998. The victims included four children, nine women and 10 men. Lashkar-e-Taiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba – also transliterated as Lashkar-i-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Lashkar-i-Taiba, Lashkar Taiba or LeT – is one of the largest and most active militant Islamist terrorist organizations in South Asia, operating mainly from Pakistan.It was founded by Hafiz Muhammad...
has been blamed for prepetrating this massacre
Massacre
A massacre is an event with a heavy death toll.Massacre may also refer to:-Entertainment:*Massacre , a DC Comics villain*Massacre , a 1932 drama film starring Richard Barthelmess*Massacre, a 1956 Western starring Dane Clark...
.
The attackers also demolished a Hindu temple and a house.
Background
Wandhama is a small town near Ganderbal in the state of Jammu and KashmirJammu and Kashmir
Jammu and Kashmir is the northernmost state of India. It is situated mostly in the Himalayan mountains. Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south and internationally with the People's Republic of China to the north and east and the...
in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. The state had a minority population of Hindu Kashmiri Pandits, over a quarter of a million of whom fled from the Kashmir valley to the Hindu-majority Jammu
Jammu
Jammu , also known as Duggar, is one of the three administrative divisions within Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost state in India.Jammu city is the largest city in Jammu and the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir...
part of the state after militants began carrying out a systematic campaign of assassinations and intimidation against them. The Wandhama Pandits consisted of Pandits who chose to remain in their homeland despite the rise in violence, as well as those Pandits who returned to the region from refugee camps in Jammu.
The Massacre
On 25 January 1998, 23 Kashmiri PanditKashmiri Pandit
The Kashmiri Pandits are a Hindu Brahmin community originating from Kashmir, a mountainous region in South Asia.-Background:The Hindu caste system of the region was influenced by the influx of Buddhism from the time of Asoka, around the third century BCE, and a consequence of this was that the...
s 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 Pandit 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
AK-47
The AK-47 is a selective-fire, gas-operated 7.62×39mm assault rifle, first developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is officially known as Avtomat Kalashnikova . It is also known as a Kalashnikov, an "AK", or in Russian slang, Kalash.Design work on the AK-47 began in the last year...
rifles The massacre was allegedly committed by Abdul Hamid Gada of Hizbul Mujahideen
Hizbul Mujahideen
Hizbul Mujahideen , founded by Ahsan Dar in 1989, is a Kashmiri militant group active in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir since 1989. Their headquarters are located in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir. It is believed the group al-Badr, derived from Hizbul Mujahideen...
and was timed to coincide with the Shab-e-Qadar
Laylat al-Qadr
Lailatul Qadr , the Night of Destiny, Night of Power, Night of Value, the Night of Decree or Night of Measures, is the anniversary of two very important dates in Islam that occurred in the month of Ramadan...
, the holiest night of the month of Ramzan, when believers stay awake until dawn. Gada was subsequently shot dead by Indian security forces in 2000.
Kashmir's Divisional Commissioner S L Bhat, who knew some of the Pandits personally, was quick to arrive at the scene of the carnage. He said, "This is the worst incident I have witnessed, I believe foreign militants were involved in the massacre".
After the massacre, the local Hindu temple was destroyed, as were the houses of the Pandits.
Reactions
The Kashmiri Pandit (Hindu) community all over the world has reacted with shock and outrage at the incident. All the prominent Pandit organisations asked the Centre to dismiss the Farooq Abdullah government in Jammu and Kashmir and demanded a fresh look to their "rehabilitation".Roots In Kashmir a frontline worldwide organisation of Kashmiri Pandit Youth also expressed shock over the incident. The group came out strongly against the Government attitude while conducting the investigation.
On the 10th anniversary of Wandhama Massacre; Roots In Kashmir, Coordinator, Aditya Raj Kaul said:
Panun Kashmir Convenor Agnishekhar said:
The day after the incident, agitating Kashmiri Pandits clashed with police in the Capital, New Delhi, when they broke barricades and tried to force their way to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). At least 11 Kashmiri Pandits, including Panun Kashmir convenor Dr Agnishekhar, were injured when they were hit by water cannon. Dr Agnishekhar fell unconscious and rushed to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
In a press release, the Indo-American Kashmir Forum (IAKF) in Washington D.C. condemned the carnage and demanded military protection.
The Indo-American Kashmir Forum joined their apex organization in North America, the Kashmiri Overseas Association (KOA), in "condemning this brutal outrage on the Pandit minority in Kashmir":
Indian Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral
Inder Kumar Gujral
Inder Kumar Gujral served as the 12th Prime Minister of India. Gujral was the first PM to govern exclusively from the Rajya Sabha; , only he and Manmohan Singh have done so.-Early life:...
joined the mourners in Kashmir's Wandhama village on 28 January. The Prime Minister was accompanied by Governor General K V Krishna Rao (retired), Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah and Union Minister for Environment Saifuddin Soz. He said:
There were protests in several refugee camps where Kashmiri Pandits have been interred since their ethnic cleansing.
In 1999, The Jammu and Kashmir Yatheem Trust, one of the few non-governmental welfare organisations working in Kashmir, made an attempt to remedy this. Its survey placed the orphan population in the six districts of the Valley at 15,308
Local law enforcement authorities have been criticized for being dysfunctional in protecting the minority Hindus in Kashmir.
See also
- List of massacres in India
- Terrorism in KashmirTerrorism in KashmirThe insurgency in Kashmir has existed in various forms. Thousands of lives have been lost since 1989 due to the intensification of both the insurgency and the fight against it....
- KashmirKashmirKashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
- Kashmiri PanditKashmiri PanditThe Kashmiri Pandits are a Hindu Brahmin community originating from Kashmir, a mountainous region in South Asia.-Background:The Hindu caste system of the region was influenced by the influx of Buddhism from the time of Asoka, around the third century BCE, and a consequence of this was that the...
s - IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
- TerrorismTerrorismTerrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...