WANDHAMA MASSACRE-THE FORGOTTEN HUMAN TRAGEDY

"When they came, they assured us they wouldn`t harm the four Pandit families... one Urdu-speaking gunman asked for tea and my mother made it for all of them and served it to them herself... then time passed, and other militants began entering the other three houses of my relatives," Dhar recalls. Dhar was in the upper story of the house, fighting sleep and waiting for the "guests" to leave before retiring for the night, when the death-rattle of automatic weapons broke out. "I heard the cries of my mother and sisters, I heard the sounds of shots from the homes of my relatives as well... I hid upstairs, scared they would search the house... they didn`t, but two militants set it on fire before leaving... I came down, but all I saw was bodies lying scattered everywhere... my mother, my sisters, relatives... all, dead... when I went out, I saw the other three houses burning, a temple near our home was also in flames..."

Truly bizarre is the fact that the Local Police have closed the Wandhama Massacre case citing “un-traceablility of the killers as the reason for closing the case”.Read it here.

Wandhama massacre refers to the murder of Kashmiri Hindus in the town of Wandhama on the intervening night of 25th January 1998.It was one of the worst incidences of violence against Kashmiri Pandits being carried out by militants in Kashmir. It was an illustration of the Kashmir militant's policy of ethnic cleansing .The victims, all of them Kashmiri Pandits, included four children, nine women and 10 men.

The case is in a way a microcosm of the apathy of the Government towards the Pandits.Ideally the government should have asked a better investigating agency like a SIT/CID or even a CBI to pursue the case so that the killers could be identified and nabbed, had its own Police proved incompetent to do the job. But that was not to be. As always the Police simply closed the case and thought its responsibility is over.

It is thus,us, the citizens of this nation, who have to ensure that justice is meted to the perpetrators of this heinous crime. It is also important to the let this nation and the world know about this incident and how local government and Police have in a way been complicit in the crime by not doing enough to bring the terrorists to the book. Roots in Kashmir is taking the first step in this direction by organizing an AV presentation and a panel discussion focusing on (on 20th June at 6PM at Chinmaya Auditorium,Lodhi Road) this massacre. The event will hopefully bring the issue to the fore as well as pressurize the government to take note and maybe act.

Let us all resolve to bring the killers of these innocent people to justice.....

1. Sh. Moti Lal
2. Smt. Choti
3. Sh. Sanjay Kumar
4. Ms. Seema Kumari
5. Ms. Sarika
6. Ms. Vijay Kumari
7. Sh. Venan Kumar
8. Ms. Neema
9. Sh. Kashi Nath
10. Sh. Vinod Kumar
11. Sh. Shaadi Lal
12. Smt. Shaadi lal
13. Sh. Vikas
14. Sh. Akshay
15. Sh. Badri Nath
16. Smt. Ashaji
17. Sh. Vinod Kumar
18. Ms. Jyoti
19. Ms. Meenakshi
20. Sh. Rakesh
21. Sh. Vishnu Bhat
22. Smt. Dulari
23. Sh. Trilokinath