Many leaders from Jammu Kashmir have called January 21
"a very dark day" in the recent history of Kashmir . On
this day in 1990, 51 civilians were killed in firing by Indian security forces on protesters
in Srinagar ’s Gaw Kadal area.
Many parts of Kashmir including Srinagar
city centre Lal Chowk were shut down in remembrance of the victims on Tuesday.
Thousands of enthusiastic youth, elders and women led by
JKLF chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik marched towards the place of massacre from
JKLF headquarters in Srinagar. The participants were chanting slogans in favour
of Azadi, JKLF and martyrs. Protests were taken out in many other places across Kashmir too.
Amid protests in parts of the city to commemorate the
day, the CM of Jammu Kashmir Omar Abdullah took to microblogging site Twitter.
"Today marks the anniversary of a very dark day in the recent history of Kashmir .
The #Gawkadal killings symbolise much of what went wrong (sic)," Abdullah,
who has more than 425,000 followers on Twitter, posted
"Though violence levels are at a record low memories of incidents like
#Gawkadal reinforce why Kashmir has to be freed of
violence and guns (sic)," he added.
According to people who claim they were at Gaw Kadal on that fateful day 24
years ago, security forces fired at unarmed peaceful protesters while they were
crossing a bridge.
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