Srinagar, Masarrat Aalam Butt, the detained Chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), has paid homage to the victims of the Gaw Kadal, Handwara, and Kupwara massacres in a poignant message from his incarceration.

According to Kashmir Media Service, Indian troops were responsible for the deaths of over 50 civilians in the Gaw Kadal area of Srinagar on January 21, 1990, 25 in Handwara on January 25, 1990, and 27 in Kupwara on January 27, 1994. Butt, currently held in New Delhi’s Tihar jail, urged people to remember the martyrs through prayers and protests against what he described as a genocide of innocent people, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, custodial disappearances, and the imposition of Hindutva ideology by Indian forces in the occupied territory.

The APHC Chairman emphasized that the Kashmiri people had experienced numerous massacres, including those at Gaw Kadal, Razekadal, Bijbehara, Sopore, Handwara, and Kupwara, in their quest for freedom from Indian occupation. He expressed his conviction that India’s repressive tactics would not succeed in quelling the Kashmiris’ aspiration for self-determination.

Furthermore, Butt called for the observation of Indian Republic Day on January 26 as a Black Day, to highlight the contradiction between India’s democratic claims and its denial of the right to self-determination to the Kashmiri people for over seven decades. He appealed to the United Nations to take action to implement its resolutions on the Kashmir dispute and help resolve the longstanding issue.

Additionally, Molvi Bashir Irfani, the incarcerated General Secretary of APHC, in a statement from Srinagar, accused India of deceiving the world by portraying itself as a democracy while committing human rights violations in Kashmir. He reminded that Indian troops had occupied Jammu and Kashmir 76 years ago, in violation of international law, leading to ongoing atrocities in the region.