Today is the 31st anniversary of the Mussoorie firing incident. CM Pushkar Singh Dhami reached Mussoorie and paid tribute to the martyrs of the Uttarakhand state movement. He paid tribute to six agitators from Mussoorie at the martyr’s place located on Mall Road.
Even today people shudder remembering the incident of the firing on 2 September 1994. On this day, the police showered bullets on six unarmed state agitators. The true story of police brutality and atrocities was so horrific that this day was forever linked as a black chapter in the history of Mussoorie.
Bijendra Negi, the younger son of martyr Balbir Negi, says that on 2 September 1994, a rally of agitators was going on. His brother Balbir Negi was also present in the rally. The police shot his brother with one bullet in the chest and two bullets in the stomach. Such a big atrocity was committed on the agitators that it can never be forgotten. Senior state agitator Jai Prakash Uttarakhandi says that on the evening of September 1, 1994, a meeting of the Uttarakhand United Sangharsh Samiti was going on.
Uttarakhand became a separate state after a long struggle and martyrdom.
At that time, news came that the police had fired on the procession of state agitators in Khatima. On the morning of September 2, Mussoorie was closed and a peaceful protest was held in protest against the Khatima incident. At night, the police and PAC occupied the office of the Uttarakhand United Sangharsh Samiti located at Jhulaghar and turned it into a cantonment. 46 agitators, including the committee’s president Hukam Singh Panwar, were arrested and sent to jail in PAC trucks.
After the arrest of the agitators, a brutal firing took place in Mussoorie. Six agitators Rai Singh Bangari, Madan Mohan Mamagai, Hansa Dhanai, Belmati Chauhan, Balbir Negi and Dhanpat Singh were martyred, along with CO Police Umakant Tripathi. He said that after a long struggle and martyrdom, Uttarakhand became a separate state, but the capital Gairsain has not been established till date. Today there is a need to seriously think about the problems of migration, employment, education, hospitals and water, forest and land in the hills.
The state of the agitators’ dreams has not been formed: Godiyal
Senior state agitator Devi Prasad Godiyal says that the agitators demanding a separate state were peacefully protesting near Jhulaghar against the Khatima firing incident. The police forcibly took away five agitators from the protest site. When other agitators went to the spot to free them, the police arrested them too and took them to Dehradun.
On this day, the people of the hills saw curfew in the hills for the first time. He said that the issues on which such a big movement was carried out and a separate state was formed have not been resolved till date. Migration from the hills continues even today. We are not able to save water, forest and land.
