SRINAGAR: On the twenty-first anniversary of the Chattisingpora massacre the APSCC Chairman Jagmohan Singh Raina has demanded a fresh probe into the killings.
In a statement, APSCC said that after 21 years the people of Jammu and Kashmir especially the Sikhs of the valley are still waiting for justice and urge the state and central government to nab the culprits of the Chattisinghpora massacre.
The APSCC Chairman Jagmohan Singh Raina urged the government to announce a fresh probe into the incident and allow the Justice Pandian Commission to further investigate the incident as Brakpora and Chattisinghpora cases are interlinked. He also urged the people of Jammu and Kashmir to get united for communal harmony and solve their long-pending issues.
In a statement Jagmohan Singh Raina reminded that in the year 2000, unidentified gunmen had entered a quiet Kashmiri village in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district and massacred 35 men, adding that the men who were killed belonged to the minority Sikh community and their murder shocked the entire Kashmir.
He regretted that though the Central Government has blamed militants for carrying out the massacre it’s claimed that at least five of the men who carried out the brutal massacre is yet to be proved by hard evidence and as such the questions still remain unanswered.
APSCC in it’s above referred statement said that the slain people dubbed ‘militants’ by police were actually innocent residents of Brackpora proved by judicial enquiry of Justice Pandan Commission. The APSCC also said bodies of slain men were burnt and hastily buried in a nearby village. “The drama stage-managed by the officials was a fake as they said that the militants were caught in a burning house during a gun battle and their bodies were charred beyond recognition,” said APSCC.
Stating that people in Kashmir are questioning whether the men killed on that day were actually involved in the Chattisinghpora killings or not, APSCC in its statement further said that so far the police have failed to produce any hard evidence that the slain men were involved — leaving many people in Kashmir doubt that whether the security officials in the troubled region really knew who killed the men of Chattisinghpora.
The APSCC also said that do far the Committee appointed by the Government has failed to find out the culprits and solve the mystery of the killings of Sikhs in Kashmir. The APSCC has both the central government and as well as Jammu and Kashmir Government to order a fresh probe in the killings failing which Sikhs will consider it as a huge injustice done with them.
Recalling that during the time of the massacre the then US President Bill Clinton also expressed his grief on the sad incident and urged the Government of India to nab the culprits, which he later on also mentioned in his book and termed the incident as a most unfortunate incident of his life.
The APSCC also reminded that after the killing of innocent Sikhs, the then Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah publicly assured that the culprits will be soon arrested as they were having some clue and assured all the assistance needed by the Sikhs of Kashmir. but to date, the promises made by the former CM have not been kept.
On this fateful day, the All Parties Sikh Coordination Committee, even after two-decade, urge the government to conduct a fresh probe into the killings so that culprits are nabbed and justice is provided to the families of the victims.
On yet another anniversary of the Chattisinghpora massacre, the Jagmohan Singh Raina chairman of APSCC urged the government to order a fresh probe into the incident and allow the Justice Pandan Commission to further investigate the incident as Brackpura and Chattisinghpora case are interlinked. He also urged the people of Jammu and Kashmir to be united for protecting communal harmony and resolving their long-pending issues.
