Chattisinghpora, Pathribal, and Barakpora massacres

The Chattisinghpora, Pathribal, and Barakpora massacres refer to a series of three closely related incidents that took place in the Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir between 20 March 2000 and 3 April 2000 that left up to 49 Kashmiri civilians dead.

The Chattisinghpora massacre

Main article: Chittisinghpura massacre

On the evening of 20 March 2000, 15-17 unidentified gunmen, dressed in Indian army fatigues, entered the village of Chattisinghpora, located in Anantnag district. They ordered all of the Sikh men and boys to assemble at the village gurdwara, and systematically shot and killed 34 of them. Many others were injured in the attack, and least one man later died of his injuries. The sole survivor of the massacre was Nanak Singh Aulakh, who recounted the events to reporters.^[1] A unit of Indian paramilitary Rashtriya Rifles stationed nearby failed to intervene during the attack.^[2] The attackers wore military uniforms, and were led by a man they addressed as 'Commanding Officer.' As they withdrew, they allegedly shouted Hindu slogans, and left behind bottles of liquor.^[2] This was the first time in the Kashmir conflict that Sikhs had ever been targeted.^[2] In the aftermath of the attacks, Indian Home Minister LK Advani offered the state's Sikh population additional protective measures, however the local Sikh leadership reportedly rejected the plan, saying that the Muslim majority had not been hostile to them before and that no protection was needed.^[2]

The massacre, which took place on the eve of U.S. President Bill Clinton's visit to the Subcontinent, was widely condemned by both the Indian and Pakistani governments, as well as the leaders of the Kashmiri separatist movement. Although the Government of India and the state government of Jammu and Kashmir had not yet launched any official investigation into the massacre, they immediately accused two Islamist terrorist organizations, Lashkar e Tayyiba and Hizbul Mujahideen.^[2] The All Parties Hurriyat Conference however, accused the Indian government of carrying out the massacre to discredit the Kashmiri independence movement, while Syed Salahuddin, head of Hizbul Mujahideen said: "Mujahideen have nothing against the Sikh community which sympathizes with our struggle. We assure them that there never was and there will never be any danger to Sikhs from Kashmiri freedom fighters."^[2]

Local villagers ensured that the local school was up and running just two weeks after the killings. The massacre created tension and distrust between the Sikh and Muslim residents of the area, but no problems developed at the joint Muslim-Sikh village school.^[1]

In 2010, the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) associate David Headley, who was arrested in connection with the 2008 Mumbai attacks, reportedly confessed to the National Investigation Agency that the LeT carried out the Chittisinghpura massacre.^[3] He is said to have identified an LeT militant named Muzzamil as part of the group which carried out the killings apparently to create communal tension just before Clinton’s visit.^[4]

The Pathribal killings

Five days after the events at Chattisinghpora, on 25 March 2000, Indian military forces killed five men in Pathribal village of Anantnag district, claiming that the victims were the "foreign militants" responsible for the attacks. Official reports claimed that security forces had, after a gun fight, blown up the hut where the men were hiding, and had retrieved five bodies that had been charred beyond recognition. The bodies were buried separately without any postmortem examination.^[2]

Local observers and political activists doubted the Indian government's official reports however, pointing out that if there had been a gunfight, some of the security force personnel would have sustained injuries - but none were injured.^[2] Over the following days, local villagers began to protest, claiming that the men were ordinary civilians who had been killed in a fake encounter, not "foreign militants." According to them, up to 17 men had been detained by the police and "disappeared" between 21–24 March.^[2] On 30 March, local authorities in Anantnag relented to growing public pressure, and agreed to exhume the bodies and conduct an investigation into the deaths.

The Barakpora killings

With no action being taken with regards to the promised investigation into the Pathribal deaths, the local population grew increasingly restless. On 3 April 2000, an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 protesters marched to the city of Anantnag, where they intended to present a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner demanding the exhumation of the bodies. When they reached the town of Barakpora, three kilometers from Anantnag, some protesters began throwing stones at an Indian paramilitary camp. Members of the Central Reserve Police Force responded by opening fire on the protesters, killing 7 and injuring at least 15 more, of whom 1 or 2 later died of their injuries.^[2]

Pathribal DNA cover-up

On 5 April 2000, Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah ordered the exhumation of the bodies from the Pathribal killings, which began the next day. DNA samples were collected from the five bodies, as well as 15 relatives of the missing young men, and were submitted to forensic laboratories in Kolkata and Hyderabad. However, in March 2002 it was discovered that the DNA samples allegedly taken from the bodies of the Pathribal victims (all of whom were men) had been tampered with, when, according to a report from the Times of India, lab workers found that samples had in fact been collected from females.^[5] Fresh samples were collected in April 2002, which, upon testing, conclusively proved that the victims were innocent local civilians, and not foreign militants as the Indian government had been claiming for the past two years.^[6]

Aftermath

The parties responsible for the initial massacre at Chattisinghpora remain unidentified - various theories have been put forward accusing both Pakistani Islamist militants, and Indian renegades - surrendered militants who cooperate with Indian armed forces. In August 2000, the Indian government announced that it had captured two Pakistan-based Lashkar e Tayyiba operatives, who, in December 2000, allegedly admitted to carrying out the attacks.^[7] An alleged Lashkar militant, Mohammad Suhail Malik of Sialkot, Pakistan, admitted to participating in the massacre. In an interview with the New York Times, he stated that he had been trained in mountain climbing and marksmanship by the Lashkar, and had infiltrated into India in October, 1999 carrying the equivalent of $200 for expenses. Malik went on to say that he knew nothing about the plot to kill the Sikhs until he stood in an orchard where the 35 people were killed, and had had opened fire because he had been ordered to do so by his commanders. He stated that while "the Koran teaches us not to kill innocents...if Lashkar told us to kill those people, then it was right to do it. I have no regrets."^[8] However, in the same article, the author decried the conditions under which the interview was conducted, and expressed doubt about the veracity of the confession. He stated that Malik gave few details in his answers, primarily repeating information from official police dossiers, and expressed concern that Malik may have been tortured while in custody.^[8] At one point in the article he states:

"I wanted to interview the teenager once more, this time without the authorities present. Somehow, I thought I could win his trust, offer him an out, persuade him that he did not have to confess to the massacre unless it was true.^[8]

On 10 August 2011, a Delhi court acquitted both Malik and another Pakistani national, Waseem Ahmed, of the charge of involvement in the Chattisinghpora massacre.^[9]

Some human rights organizations have also expressed doubt about the veracity of these admissions. Independent inquiries by human rights activists from Punjab and the Ludhiana-based International Human Rights Organization have found that it is unlikely that the attacks were carried out by Indian security forces themselves, and that the perpetrators were most likely renegades.^[2]

In 2006, five Indian military officers were found guilty of killing innocent civilians in the fake encounter at Pathribal.^[10]

In 2005, Sikh organizations such as the Bhai Kanahiya Jee Nishkam Seva Society demanded a deeper state inquiry into the details of the massacre^[11] and for the inquiry to be made public. In the wake of arrest of an Army officer for Malegaon blasts, Sikhs of J&K have demanded into the Chattisinghpora massacre.^[12]

Clinton Controversy

The massacre coincided with the visit of United States president Bill Clinton to India. In an introduction to a book written by Madeleine Albright titled The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs, she accused "Hindu militants" of perpetrating the act. Hindu organizations protested the statement, and ultimately the publishers, Harper Collins, edited the statement out of future editions of the book. They acknowledged the error in an email to the Times of India:^[13]

Page xi of the Mighty and the Almighty contains a reference to Hindu militants that will be deleted in subsequent printings, both in America and in international editions. This error was due to a failure in the fact-checking process.^[13]

Clinton's office never clarified the statement^[13]. In the hours immediately after the massacre in March 2000, the US condemned the killings but refused to accept the Indian government's contention that it was the work of Pakistani Islamist groups. Clinton explicitly condemned the massacre by "unknown groups," and reemphasized that point in his 2004 autobiography, My Life^[13]. Similarly, in his 2004 book Engaging India: Diplomacy, Democracy, and the Bomb, Clinton aide Strobe Talbott confirms Clinton's misgivings about the massacre, pointing out that “he [Clinton] did not endorse the accusation that Pakistan was behind the violence since the US had no independent confirmation."^[11]

Chattisinghpora massacre in film

The massacre was depicted in the commercial Bollywood film Adharm (unholy) directed by Adeep Singh.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Inquiry into Chittisinghpura Massacre comes too late residents say, ndtv.com
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} A trail of unlawful killings in Jammu and Kashmir: Chithisinghpora and its aftermath. Amnesty International. 15 June 2000.
3. ^ Lashkar behind Sikh massacre in Kashmir in 2000, says Headley. Hindustan Times. 25 October 2010.
4. ^ Chittisinghpura Massacre: Obama’s proposed visit makes survivors recall tragedy . The Tribune, Chandigarh. 25 October 2010.
5. ^ Kashmir massacre samples faked. "BBC News," 8 March 2002.
6. ^ Kashmir massacre suspects 'innocent'. "BBC News," 16 July 2002.
7. ^ Lashkar militant admits killing Sikhs in Chittisinghpura. "Rediff," 31 December 2000.
8. ^ ^{a b c} Bearak, Barry. A Kashmiri Mystery. "New York Times." 31 December 2000.
9. ^ Sikhs' massacre in Chattisinghpora: Two Pakistanis acquitted. "The Times of India," 10 August 2011.
10. ^ Pathribal encounter: Five Armymen found guilty of killing innocent Kashmiris. "Outlook," 27 April 2006.
11. ^ ^{a b} Sikhs want CBI probe into Chittisinghpura Massacre, tribuneindia.com
12. ^ http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/web1/08nov20/state.htm#10 Sikhs for judicial probe into Chattisingpora massacre "Daily Excelsior," 8 November 2008.
13. ^ ^{a b c d} Clinton goofs up on J&K killings,Times of India