Qaisar Mansoor
On a cloudy evening of March 20, 2000, Chattisingpora, a hilltop hamlet in Indian Occupied Kashmir’s (IOK)’s Islamabad district, became the site of a massacre that claimed the lives of 35 men and children of the region’s minority Sikh community.
The massacre took place on the eve of US President Bill Clinton’s visit to India. India through RSS turned its attention towards the Sikhs of IIOJK to not only suppress the freedom movement in Kashmir but also create an impression upon the visiting US president that the Kashmir liberation movement was of a ‘communal nature’.
The lone survivor of Chattisinghpora massacre, Nanak Singh, said, “They [RSS goons] were calling each other with the names Pawan, Bansi, Bahadur and they left while shouting ‘Jai Hind’. The attackers did not appear to be Kashmiris. They looked more like people from the Southern India. On March 25, days after the massacre, Indian army claimed to have eliminated five “foreign militants” responsible for Chattisinghpora.
It was later revealed that all five men were locals and civilians who had been abducted from their homes. People protested for an investigation into the incident, but Indian security forces killed nine more people in firing on the demonstrators in Brakpora on 3 April 2000. Among the dead were those related to the victims of Pathribal episode.
In 2017, Lt Gen (r) KS Gill, who was part of a CBI investigation in 2006 Pathribal fake encounter, said that Indian Army was involved in the massacre and the report had been submitted to L. K. Advani who was the Home Minister in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government then. On 9th May 2006, CBI concluded the investigation and filed a charge sheet against 5 personnel of 7 Rashtariya Rifles, while accepting that others were also involved. CBI investigation revealed that those killed in Pathribal were local Kashmiris who were indeed murdered, after their bodies were exhumed from the graves and identified by their families. Yet, Indian army tried to exonerate the soldiers or its goons from RSS involved. In the meantime, former US Secretary of State Madeline Albright wrote in her memoir that Clinton suspected the hand of Hindu extremists in the Chittisinghpura incident. In her memoir titled ‘The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs’ (2006), she accused “Hindu Militants” of perpetrating the act.
This angered the Indian government, and the publishers relented and agreed to make changes.
All Parties Sikh Coordination Committee (APSCC) has expressed dismay over the delay in justice to the families of 35 Sikh families who were killed at Chattisinghpora in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district on March 20, 2000. Over two decades have passed, families of victims of Chattisinghpora, Pathribal and Barakpora massacres still seek justice.
