‘Some powers didn’t want Chattisinghpora investigated’

Former Jammu and Kashmir CM Farooq Abdullah claimed on Sunday that some powers did not want the massacre of 34 Sikhs in Chattisinghpora in 2000 to be investigated.

“I wanted the judge probing the fake encounter in Brakpora to look into the Chattisinghpora massacre too, but some powers did not want to do it. Now that the central government is headed by a Sikh, the Sikhs of J&K should mount pressure and get the case reinvestigated by a retired supreme court judge,” Farooq, who was the chief minister of J&K from 1996-2002, said at a function here.

Unidentified gunmen descended on Chattisinghpora on March 20, 2000, and killed 34 Sikhs. Five days later, security forces branded the five men as militants and killed them in Pathribal. Abdullah ordered the exhumation of those killed in Pathribal and their DNA samples were sent to Hyderabad. It emerged that the samples had been fudged.

“They were held responsible for killing Sikhs. Thanks to Allah, they were proved innocent.” he said. The minister said he is writing a book which will have a chapter on this incident, “This should be opened after my death.”