8 February 2001: Kot Charwal Massacre; when 15 members of Bakkarwal Shepherd community were killed for standing against terrorism in J&K’s Rajouri

On 8 February 2001, three families of a Bakkarwal shepherd community were killed in cold blood by the Islamic terrorists in Kot Charwal village of J&K’s Rajouri district. The formation of Village Defence committee (VDC) by a Muslim shepherd provoked terrorists to carry out a massacre.

It was not until the afternoon of 9 February 2001, as the embers cooled, that reaching soldiers started clearing the debris of burnt down shacks, the first charred body emerged an hour later. Soon they found the burnt body of a woman, wrapped around that of the infant she was carrying to protect. By evening, 15 bodies had been found of which seven were children and the youngest amongst them was merely four years old.

Residents of the Salohi Mohra (nearby hamlet) had formed the first all Muslim Village Defence Committee (VDC) in the Rajouri district in December, 2000 after one local resident was killed by the Harkatul Mujahideen terrorist group. However, the primary aim of the formation of VDC’s was to protect the vulnerable Hindu minorities in the rural, far flung and hilly areas and the formation of a complete Muslim VDC at Kot Charwal didn’t go down well with the terrorists.

However, the residents of Kot Charwal hadn’t expected such sheer brutality given the circumstances. On the night of 8 February, 2001, a group of terrorists arrived late night at the home of one young shepherd who was instrumental in setting up the VDC. But on that fateful day, he wasn’t at home and terrorists started beating up his family members, asking where he was. However, taking advantage of the darkness, his family fled to the woods.

The terrorists then surrounded three nearby dhokes (shelters made of wood) leaving no opportunity for the villagers to flee and bolted the dhokes from outside. Then some terrorists clambered on to it’s roof and made a hole to throw hand grenades inside. Soon after, they sprinkled kerosene oil on the structures and set them on fire.

Three families of Bakkarwal shepherds comprising 15 persons were the victims and they were brutally massacred just because they had dared to take on terrorist groups active near them.