After
an outcry DNA samples were taken from the relatives of the five
alleged terrorists killed in a joint police-Army operation in March
2000 to ensure it could not be accused of having murdered innocent
civilians in a fake encounter. Killings of both militants and ordinary
people in fake encounters by the security forces is a common complaint
in Kashmir.
Local
residents insisted that the men were innocent civilians who went
missing after being arrested by the Army. After much hue and cry was
raised over the issue at home and abroad the government agreed to
exhume the bodies.
As
a result bodies of the slain "terrorists'' were exhumed from
Panchalthan, near Anantnag, after widespread protests.
Five
families in the Anantnag area identified the charred, decomposed
bodies as those of their relatives who had gone missing after the
Chattisinghpora incident. The government at the time said no action
would be taken against the security personnel until DNA testing
conclusively proved the identity of the five bodies.
DNA samples were promptly collected from the bodies and from eight
relatives and sent in April 2000 to the Hyderabad-based Centre for DNA
Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, an autonomous institute of the Indian
Government.
To
ensure the tests would prove negative, officials tampered with the
relatives’ DNA samples. However, they did not realise that the DNA
test would also be able to expose their attempts at a cover-up.
The results of the DNA tests in case No. 783-78/ADM of Anantnag police
station, under CDFD case No. 685 and DNA typing report
LS/DNA-FP/2001-645, were forwarded to the senior superintendent of
police, Anantnag, on February 26, 2001.
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| Weeping women of
Chittisinghpora |
Now
that the truth is out, Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah has issued
orders with immediate effect to place under suspension all the
officials involved in faking the DNA samples. He declared today that
in case the officials are found guilty, they would be sacked and
prosecuted. One man commission of enquiry, headed by Justice GA
Kuchay, a retired High Court judge, has also been appointed to probe
the matter. The report is expected in two months.Meanwhile, Inspector
General of Police Jammu, PL Gupta, has been entrusted the job of
getting fresh DNA tests conducted. It may be recalled that on the
first day of the then U.S. President Bill Clinton's Indian visit Sikh
villagers in Chattisinghpora in Kashmir were massacred.
While
DNA samples purported to have been collected from the relatives did
not match with the DNA isolated from the exhumed bodies. In three
cases, the samples of women relatives were found to have come from
men, something that is said to have come as a shock to the forensic
scientists.
The
cover-up sufficiently meant that the DNA samples were switched in a
desperate attempt to disprove the claims of the relatives that the
slain men were their relatives and had nothing to do with the
Chattisinghpora massacre.
Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah had said that as soon as the reports
were received they would be tabled in the legislative assembly
