3 min readJammuNov 8, 2013 03:48 AM IST
First published on: Nov 8, 2013 at 03:48 AM IST
In what is being seen as an attempt to sabotage the CBI investigation into the killing of 19 Muslims,including women and children allegedly by some army men and SPOs at village Sailan in Poonch district 15 years ago,an unidentified motorcyclist hit and seriously injured a key witness at Jewel Chowk here on Thursday evening.
Mohammad Afzal was witness to the killing of his father Hassan Mohammad and other family members,according to Mohammad Latief,whose family members were also killed in the massacre. Afzal had seen the killers moving in the area and he knew some of them,he added.
Doctors said he sustained injuries in the head and left leg. However,his condition was stated to be stable.
The motorcyclist and his vehicle remain unidentified as,according to Nowabad police,they came to know about the accident from PCR and that too when the victim had already been taken to the hospital. They have registered a case and are investigating.
Sources said Afzal along with some other people from Sailan have been in Jammu for the past four days to depose before CBI Inspector Ashok Kalra,who is investigating the massacre. So far,Kalra has recorded the statements of two eyewitnesses Abdul Ahad and Master Shabir.
Afzal was scheduled to depose before the CBI inspector on Friday. He was returning to his hotel room along with other witnesses when a motorcyclist hit him from behind and fled.
He was immediately rushed to the hospital in an unconscious condition by policemen deployed in the area. It was an attempt to prevent him from deposing before the CBI officer and sabotage the investigations into the matter which was reopened following directions from the high court, said Latief.
The massacre was allegedly in retaliation to the killing of an SPO,Zakir Hussain,by a local militant Imtiyaz and his associates near Buffliaz.
Latiefs apprehensions are not unfounded as few days after CBI took up investigations into the matter,some army men belonging to 16 Rashtriya Rifles at Draba camp in Surankote had allegedly visited the village and asked villagers,especially eyewitnesses,as to what they would be telling the visiting CBI officials. The villagers complained that they even took their photographs along with their houses.
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