To prosecute Army or not: CBI divided over Kashmir killings

One wing of the CBI wants to prosecute Army and J&K officials for the killing of five Kashmiris in Pathribal in Anantnag in March 2000, anot...

One wing of the CBI wants to prosecute Army and J&K officials for the killing of five Kashmiris in Pathribal in Anantnag in March 2000, another wing wants the controversial case closed that sparked widespread outrage.

The Pathribal killings came four days after the massacre of 35 Sikh villagers in Chittisinghpora on March 21, 2000. In firing by security forces on a protest march, the state government claimed that five militants were killed. But it was discovered that the five were Anantnag residents. Their bodies were exhumed and it was found that samples of not one but two rounds of DNA testing were fudged.

Now CBI Chief U S Misra is to take a final decision on the fate of senior officials of the Rashtriya Rifles (07 RR) alleged to have killed innocent citizens.

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Sources said the CBI’s legal panel, its Director of Prosecution, its Senior Public Prosecutor and Additional Legal Advisor, have recommended closure. But CBI’s Additional Director, a Joint Director, a Deputy Inspector General (DIG) and the Investigating Officer (IO) who handled the probe have asked for prosecution of between three to five Army officials and departmental action against J&K state officials who allegedly fudged the DNA samples.

The CBI’s legal panel has argued that it would be difficult to identify culprits from among the 100-strong Army contingent who claimed to have gunned down five Pak militants.

The CBI investigators, however, have named 14 persons, mostly of the 07 RR as well as a civilian doctor and some state police officials as being responsible for the fake encounter. Listing circumstantial and documentary evidence, the CBI investigators have identified a Brigadier, a Colonel, a Lt Colonel and two Majors.

Ritu Sarin

Ritu Sarin is Executive Editor (News and Investigations) at The Indian Express group. Her areas of specialisation include internal security, money laundering and corruption. Sarin is one of India’s most renowned reporters and has a career in journalism of over four decades. She is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) since 1999 and since early 2023, a member of its Board of Directors. She has also been a founder member of the ICIJ Network Committee (INC). She has, to begin with, alone, and later led teams which have worked on ICIJ’s Offshore Leaks, Swiss Leaks, the Pulitzer Prize winning Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Implant Files, Fincen Files, Pandora Papers, the Uber Files and Deforestation Inc. She has conducted investigative journalism workshops and addressed investigative journalism conferences with a specialisation on collaborative journalism in several countries. ... Read More

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