Kashmir Government Orders Fresh Inquiry Into Sikh Massacre
SRINAGAR (AFP) - The Kashmir state government ordered Tuesday a fresh inquiry into the massacre of 36 Sikhs in March, which India has blamed on Pakistan-based Muslim groups.
The decision was based on the findings of a judicial probe into the subsequent police firing on a crowd of unarmed Muslim demonstrators in April that left eight people dead.
The judicial report, submitted to the Kashmir government by Justice S.R. Pandian on Tuesday, indicted seven policemen, including two officers, over the firing incident in Brakpora village, 55 kilometers (35 miles) south of Srinagar.
The demonstrators in Brakpora had been protesting against the killing by the security forces of five Muslims the previous week in the neighboring village of Pathribal.
The security forces insisted the five were fighters who had been involved in the March 20th Sikh massacre in Chattisinghpora village.
"Since all the three cases are linked to each other, we are going to request Justice Pandian to conduct an inquiry into the Pathribal and Chattisinghpora incidents also," said Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah.
"The Sikh community is having some apprehensions which we want to remove by holding the judicial inquiry," Abdullah said.
The massacre at Chattisinghpora, which came on the eve of U.S. President Bill Clinton's landmark visit to India, was one of the worst acts of sectarian violence in Kashmir since the beginning of the armed Muslim movement against Indian rule in 1989.
It also marked the first such attack on the tiny Sikh community in Kashmir. The Indian government said it had proof that two Pakistan-based Muslim groups - the Lashkar-e-Toiba and Hizbul Mujahedeen - staged the massacre.
Responding to the findings of Justice Pandian's inquiry into the later incident of police firing in Pathribal, Abdullah said the seven policemen indicted by the report had been suspended with immediate effect.
"We are about to register a case [against the seven]," Abdullah said, "and constitute a special team that will prove the case in a court of law."
Abdullah said another five members of the Central Reserve Police Force had been suspended following a separate probe into the massacre in August of 32 Hindu pilgrims in Pahalgam, 100 kilometers south of Srinagar.
The investigation found that the Pahalgam CRPF had "indulged in excessive firing" after two Muslim gunmen allegedly attacked the pilgrim camp in Pahalgam. Some 32 pilgrims died in the gun battle.
