Shutdown marks anniversary of Sopore massacre
07 January, 2013
Srinagar: In occupied Kashmir, complete shutdown was observed in Sopore, today, to mark the 20th anniversary of a deadliest massacre in the town. Call for the shutdown had been given by the veteran Kashmiri Hurriyet leader, Syed Ali Gilani. All shops and business establishments remained closed in the town while traffic was off the road. On this day in 1993, more than 50 people were martyred and hundreds other injured when the troops of Indian Border Security Force resorted to indiscriminate firing in Sopore in vengeance of the killing of their two colleagues in an attack. The troops had set the market of the town ablaze gutting down more than 350 shops and other structures. Hurriyet leaders, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, Mukhtar Ahmed Waza, Yasmeen Raja and Firdous Ahmed Shah, in their statements and addresses to condolence references while paying tributes to Sopore martyrs said that the sacrifices of Kashmiri martyrs would not be allowed to go waste. Tehreek-e-Hurriyet Jammu and Kashmir, the Jammu and Kashmir Mahaz-e-Azadi, the Jammu and Kashmir Muslim League, the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front-R and the High Court Bar Association of the occupied territory in their statements eulogised the sacrifices of Sopore martyrs. On the other hand, the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front will conduct, tomorrow, the second phase of its Court Arrest Campaign aimed at seeking the revoking of life imprisonment awarded to Kashmiri youth. The JKLF spokesman in a statement in Srinagar said that the party leaders, Bashir Ahmed Butt and Showkat Bakhshi along with Front activists, family members of detainees and relatives of martyrs would court their arrest at Batalamoo in Srinagar. Meanwhile, the All Parties Hurriyet Conference Chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Syed Ali Gilani, Shabbir Ahmed Shah and Muhammad Farooq Rehmani have expressed profound grief and sorrow over the sad demise of the former Amir of Jamaat-e-Islami in Pakistan, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, who passed away in Islamabad, last night. In London, the Executive Director of the Kashmir Centre, Professor Nazir Ahmed Shawl, at a function organised in connection with the Kashmiris' Right to Self-determination Day pleaded for unfreezing the UN resolutions on Kashmir. The function was attended among others by Barrister Abdul Majeed Tramboo, Chaudhry Mohammed Shabaan, Chaudhry Mohammed Khan and Mahmood Riaz. End.
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