Thune-Kangan massacre victim families still await justice in IIOJK
15 killed by BSF in 1990, perpetrators enjoy impunity under AFSPA
Srinagar: Justice continues to elude the families of the victims of the gory Thune-Kangan massacre, 36 years after their near and dear ones were killed by Indian Border Security Force personnel in Ganderbal district of Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir on this day in 1990.
According to Kashmir Media Service, 15 people, including Engineer Tariqul Islam, Ghulam Muhammad Wani, Farooq Ahmed Lone, and the driver and conductor of a passenger bus, were massacred and a dozen others were injured when Indian BSF personnel opened fire on and burnt the bus without any provocation.
The perpetrators of this heinous crime remain scot-free as they enjoy impunity under the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). According to eyewitnesses, marauding BSF personnel stopped the bus travelling from Sonamarg to Kangan in the evening on September 10, 1990, opened fire on it and then burnt it to ashes. The victim families are still awaiting justice while the perpetrators of this heinous crime continue their state terrorism under the cover of AFSPA in the territory. An eyewitness of the gruesome massacre told KMS that Indian BSF personnel fired on the passenger bus when it was travelling from Sonamarg to Kangan in the evening on this day in 1990.
“The Indian Border Security Force personnel stopped the bus and fired upon us without any rhyme or reason in the Thune area of Kangan,” he said.
“We saved ourselves by escaping in the darkness,” he added.
