KL Report

Srinagar

All the five victim families of the infamous Pathribal fake encounter in south Kashmir have decided not to present themselves before the army’s court martial for any statements. On January 14, all the five victim families received summon notices from the army to present themselves before the court martial on January 28 at Nagrota, which is around 300 km from their village.

“We have decided not to go to Nagrota (in the Jammu region). After 12 years of the case, we are being asked again to depose. What new things can we add now? Whatever we had to say we said before the Islamabad chief judicial magistrate in 2000,” said Rashid Khan (36), whose father Juma Khan was among the five victims.

In 2000, immediately after 35 Sikhs, were killed in south Kashmir’s Chattisinghpora area by unidentified gunmen, the army claimed to make a breakthrough in the case by killing five “militants”. Later, the five killed militants turned out to be civilians from local villages.

The urge among victim families to get justice is fast dissipating. “We are very poor families and cannot afford to go to Nagrota. We fear for our lives. We think we will not come alive from Nagrota. Our relatives were killed in broad daylight and passed of as militants. What is the guarantee that our lives are safe?” asked Khan adding, “We don’t think justice is possible now”.

Pathribal village is 40 km from Islamabad district and the victims will have to travel around 300 km to depose before the army.

In June 2012, a Srinagar court allowed general court martial proceedings against the five army officers facing charges in the killing. The court direction came after the Supreme Court on May 1, 2012 asked the army to opt for an option, “either to prosecute the five soldiers in a military court or a civil court within two months”.

The five army men, identified by the CBI for having a role in the killings, are Brigadier Ajay Saxena, Lt Col Brajendra Pratap Singh, Major Sourabh Sharma, Major Amit Saxena and Subedar Idrees Khan.The CBI charge-sheeted the army men in 2006 for “killing five civilians and later dubbing them as foreign militants”.

Hurriyat(G) chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani has also taken exception to the army’s move to call the victim families to Jammu region.

The Hurriyat spokesman asked why the army insisted to investigate the case in Jammu when killings took place at Pathribal in south Kashmir.

 “Any inquiry by the army is no way reliable or trustworthy. Legal heirs of the victims should demand impartial investigation and disassociate from the trial,” said Hurriyat spokesman Ayaz Akbar.

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