Wandhama (Ganderbal), Jan 25: For the first time, a ceremony was held here to mark the massacre of 23 Kashmiri Pandits in 1998 on this day with participants demanding punishment to the guilty.
 A group of Kashmiri Pandits led by Chairman of United Kashmiriyat Forum Bharat Raina organised special prayers in the memory of the victims.
 Ganderbal Deputy Commissioner Syed Iftikhar Bari and Superintendent of Police Imtiyaz Hussain also attended the function.
 “This is for the first time that we organised a special prayer at Wandhama to pay tributes to the 1998 massacre victims,” Raina said.
 Raina urged the chief minister Omar Abdullah to intervene and order instructions to the investigating agencies to find the culprits.
 A local Ghulam Mohi –u-Din, told Greater Kashmir that on the fateful night they were inside the local Masjid offering special night prayers when they heard some cries. Mohiddin said he rushed to the spot and saw Pandits killed and only Vinod was there who lied unconscious.
 According to the locals, the victims were symbols of communal harmony in the valley and have resisted migration at a time when the other Pandit families were migrating leaving the violence hit valley.
 Recalling the day of massacre, Muhammad Sultan said: “It was like killing of the whole humanity and we still remember the ill fated incident and we will never forget that night”.
 The locals as well as Pandits demanded that government should probe the sequence of events that led to the massacre.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:00:00 IST