Indian Express, Friday, April 7, 2000

Bodies of `slain militants' exhumed; `This is tyranny,' cry relatives

MUZAMIL JALEEL

VUZKHAH (ANANTNAG), APRIL 6: Even before the body was exhumed, the relatives of Zahoor Ahmad Dalal started wailing and crying. Dalal, a businessman from Anantnag was missing since March 24. His maternal uncle Nazir Ahmad Dalal identified the maroon sweater and the shirt as soon as the first grave was opened. The villagers had buried the half-burnt clothes of Dalal as well.

"Zahoor was wearing these clothes when he was picked up. I am hundred per cent certain that they have killed him,'' Nazir Ahmad Dalal cried with the half-burnt sweater and shirt in his hands. ``They (Army) killed them and claimed to have killed top militants. It is a shame. It is a shame for Indian democracy,'' he said. He said that Zahoor Ahamd Dalal was picked up just outside their home at Mominabad. ``We had returned home after a busy day at our shop. He parked the Maruti car in the garage and went out, never to return,'' he said

The government had ordered exhumation of the bodies of all the five persons who the Army and the police claim to be militants killed in an encounter at Zontangri peak just a few hundred metres from this graveyard. The Army and the police had claimed that these five slain "militants'' had been involved in the massacre of 35 Sikhs at Chitti Singhpora on March 20.

The local population in this hamlet, Vuzkhal and adjoining villages, Chogam,Sumlam and Panchalthan had been accusing the Army and the police of killing five civilians in "a stage-managed encounter.'' As the missing villagers belonged to the nearby villages, these killings led to mass protests in the entire Anantnag district. The Chief minister ordered a judicial probe after police fired upon demonstrating villagers, killing eight of them and wounding dozens.

A team of doctors led by the head of the forensic department, Government Medical College, Srinagar, reached the spot to exhume the bodies for forensic test in presence of the minister of State for Home, Mushtaq Ahmad Lone, the newly posted district magistrate, G A Peer and Senior Superintendent of Police, Muneer Khan

As the statement of the relatives of Dalal were being recorded by the investigating police officers, who are also probing the incident on the directions of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Anantnag, an old woman started wailing. Roshan Jan, 50, had no doubts left that her husband, Juma Khan was no more. ``Main nay uski thudi aur nak pehchan lee (I identified his bearded chin and nose),'' she said. When asked whether she has any doubts left regarding the identity of her husband's body as
there is just half of the face left, she screamed at this correspondent, ``I have lived my entire life with him, how can I make a mistake in identifying him?''

She said that though they have burnt their bodies, she could easily recognise him by his bearded chin and nose. Roshan Jan had come all the way from village Brariangan for the identification and at home it is her son's fourth-day ceremony too. Her son was among the eight villagers killed in the police firing upon the demonstrating villagers, who were seeking exhumation of these bodies to ascertain
the fate of their missing relatives and neighbours.

"He was a old man and was feeding our 15 family members by working as labourer for the village ironsmith,'' she said. She said the Army came in the night on March 24 and asked him to accompany them. ``He never returned,'' she said. As this correspondent started talking to her son, Abdul Rasheed Khan, she was crying -- ``Bohat zulam hova. Bohat zulam hova (This is tyranny)''.

The doctors were examining the exhumed body, which was completely burnt.The relatives of all the five missing villagers were called but there was nothing left to identify. By then a large number of villagers had also assembled in this small graveyard in the middle of the maize fields just a few yards beneath a picturesque alpine forest.

The police was worried as the process of exhumation was taking alot of time. ``It is a very dangerous area and the Home minister is also here. There is every likelihood of a militant attack,'' a police officer said. District magistrate Peer, who was posted after the State Government shifted the entire district administration for their failure in tackling the situation properly, said that the government would wait for the DNA analysis to reach to a final conclusion. When asked whether the
bodies identified by their relatives will be handed over to them, he said it would be decided by the court. ``We will also consult the team of doctors on it,'' he said.

Home Minister Lone said that the government would not spare anybody involved in any unlawful activity. ``We will take action as per law irrespective of their rank and file. There will be no concessions to anybody,'' he said.



Asian Age, 7th April, 2000

Villagers identify 2 bodies in J&K grave

By Yusuf Jameel

Srinagar, April 6 - The worst fears of the relatives of the persons missing in south Kashmir proved correct when the exhumation of bodies, said by the security forces to be those of foreign mercenaries, turned out to be those of their kin.

Roshan Jan, wife of Juma Khan, was the first - she said her husband was dead when she saw the chin and nose in the first grave, which on further digging revealed a mutilated body. Nazir Dalal, whose uncle Zahoor Ahmad Dalal was also among the missing, shouted in anger when he saw a shirt and sweater, which he said belonged to his uncle, in the same grave.

A second grave was dug up at Chogamm where Ghulam Rasool Bhat, whose brother Bashir Ahmad Bhat was also missing, said it was his brother's body lying in the grave. The rest of the graves, spread over a radius of 2 to 3 km in the Pathribal area where the security forces had claimed to have killed five "foreign mercenaries" involved in the March 20 massacre of 35 Sikhs at Chattisinghpura,
will be dug up on Friday.

Local villagers had already assembled at the grave sites when the exhumation process started at about 3 pm on Thursday, and were raising slogans against the security forces, demanding action against those responsible.

The security forces had said that since those killed had been foreign mercenaries, their identities could not be established. They had claimed that the five men had been killed in a fierce encounter on March 25.

This version was challenged by the local villagers, whose kin went missing and did not return. Their doubts were strengthened when the villagers of Pathribal told them that the Army had brought five men, put them into a hut and then blasted the hut with mortar fire at 6 am on March 25.

After a series of protest marches across the Valley (the police opened fire on one procession on Monday, killing eight people), Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah ordered the exhumation of the bodies (though a court directive to the same effect had been issued almost a week ago).

When a team of doctors, the Anantnag deputy commissioner of police, other senior police officials and state home minister Mushtaq Ahmad Lone reached the spot, they were told that the bodies were buried at three places - two each at Sangian and Chogamm, and one at Vuzukah.

It was difficult for the officials to calm the angry relatives and villagers, who threatened to approach Amnesty International. The authorities present said the bodies could not be handed over as the matter was sub judice, and pointed out that DNA and RNA tests were needed to prove the exact identity of the dead.

The Indian Express, Tuesday, April 10, 2001

It’s official: five killed for Chittisinghpora were innocent, say J&K police

Nazir Masoodi

Pahalgam (Anantnag), April 9: The state government today announced that all the five men who were killed in an encounter with security forces at Panchalthan, four days after the massacre of 35 Sikhs at Chittisinghpora, were innocent. And released an ex gratia sum of Rs 1 lakh per victim to the next of kin.

The Army had claimed that these five people were militants responsible for the Chittisinghpora massacre and were killed in an encounter on March 25, 2000.

Today, G A Peer, Deputy Commissioner, Anantnag, said after that the Special Investigative Tem of the police—set up on orders from the court—had completed its probe and established that the ‘‘five missing’’ people were innocent. Based on that report, the administration sanctioned the relief, he said.

The bodies of these five were exhumed after massive protest demonstrations in the area. In fact, eight villagers were killed when police and CRPF fired on the protest march at Brakpora in early April last year. After exhumation, the relatives identified the bodies and claimed that the Army’s ‘‘foreign militants’’ were ‘‘killed in a fake encounter.’’

However, Peer added that the DNA data was still pending and would arrive within the next 10 days. The Panchalthan encounter is pending before the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Anantnag. The SIT, Peer said, would submit its report to the court in a week.


Who killed the Sikhs in Chitisinghpura?

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