JAMMU, Sept 12: In an unprecedented case in Jammu and Kashmir, the State Human Rights Commission has started probe into the massacre of 19 people of the majority community by some unidentified killers in the border Poonch district, even when there is no formal complaint to it by any aggrieved person or organisation about the incident.Senior officials told The Indian Express that the matter was referred to the Commission by the state government, which is generally made an accused in complaints filed before it. This followed demand by various people for a judicial inquiry into the killings, they said and added the police FIR in the case was referred to the Commission for inquiry, as no one from the public filed a complaint to it into the matter.Ninteen people, including 14 children, were hacked to death by some unidentified killers at village Sailan on the intervening night of August 3 and 4. The deceased was the family members and relatives of a dreaded militant Imitiyaz Hamid of the Pan-IslamicLashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) outfit.The Army troops attributed the massacre to the intra-gang rivalry between the local militants and foreign mercenaries of Lashkar-e-Toiba outfit, saying Imitiyaz had planned to surrender before them on August 15 against the wishes of the mercenaries. Substantiating this, they even referred to the killing of a police constable, Zakir Hussain, by some militants near village Sailan a day earlier when he was going to meet Imitiyaz for finalising the details of his surrender.The local people in the area, however, demanded a judicial probe into the massacre, saying there was something more to the Army story. Though, no one, including the family members and relatives of the deceased, raised an accusing finger against the troops, they were not prepared to believe that Imitiyaz was planning to surrender.In this connection, many of them alleged that Imitiyaz was himself leading the militants who killed Zakir Hussain a day earlier. According to them, Zakir was a Hizbul Mujahideen,before he surrendered to become a Special Police Officer (SPO). Later, he became a regular police constable and helped the Army in various successful operations against militants in Buffliaz area.Similarly, Imitiyaz was a Hizbul Mujahideen militant before he surrendered before the Army last year. However, after some months, he was re-arrested by the police on charge of robbing a businessman and an AK-47 rifle was recovered from him.Thereafter, he was remanded to judicial custody by the court and lodged in the Poonch jail. One day, when he was being taken back to Poonch jail from a court at Surankote, Imitiyaz fled from police custody and crossed over to Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK). There he joined the Pan-Islamic LeT and returned to Poonch.Even Imitiyaz did not appear to believe the Army story and had threatened the family of the deceased constable of dire consequencies. Accordingly, the family of deceased Zakir Hussain was shifted to Surankote under police protection.The chairman of the StateHuman Rights Commission, Justice G A Kuchhai a retired judge of the State High Court, has been in Poonch since Wednesday. He visited the site of the massacre at village Sailan the first day and recorded the statements of six persons at Surankote on Thursday. Besides, he directed the Block Medical Officer to produce the post-mortem report of the deceased and visited their graves. He went to Poonch today, where he talked to various people about the massacre.Sources, however, expressed surprise over the probe by the State Human Rights Commission, saying that it had no jurisdiction over the Army and paramilitary forces deployed for counter-insurgency operations in the area. No Army officer or jawan accompanied Kuchhai to village Sailan, saying that it will give a wrong impression about their trying to influence the inquiry commission, sources added.
