Srinagar: As the wait for family members of Sailan massacre for justice enters the 19th year, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Friday, November 17, 2017, admitted a petition filed by the family members of the victims seeking further investigations in this case.
On the intervening night of 3/4 August 1998, 19 civilians were shot to death at point-blank range in their homes in Sailan village of Surankote Tehsil of district Poonch by four Special Police Officers (SPOs) and personnel of the 9 Para commando battalion. Jammu and Kashmir police officers, including the then Superintendent of Police (Poonch), J.P Singh, were also implicated in the crime and cover-up.
The filing of petition comes after a CBI court in Jammu earlier this year in August had accepted the CBI investigations that declared the victim families as being untruthful and sought closure of this case.
The High Court has issued a notice to the government and CBI to respond.
In September 1998, the government had ordered State Human Rights Commission for spot visit to Sailan village to probe into the killings and the SHRC team in its findings confirmed the role of local policemen and the troopers of 9 Para into the killings.
“It is not difficult but easy to draw conclusion how the occurrence of killing took place and who is responsible for the same. While lifting the dead body of Zakir, SPO army had vowed to wipe twenty persons even before his burial,” SHRC said in its report.
“One glaring fact noted when bloodbath of 19 persons taking place in the house of Ahmad Din, the army picket being only 200 meters away, the army supposed to be vigilant around the clock did not come on the spot to intervene when civilians had been ordered not to move after 6:30 pm. The silence of army by that time of occurrence is not meaningless, uniformed personnel seen moving with torchlight around the scene of occurrence then moving down to board the vehicles or on the main road, leaving none in doubt except bias mind,” the report added.
But even after this damning report, the case stayed in limbo until 2011, when the victim families filed a petition in the Jammu High Court and the court in November 2012 handed over the case to CBI.
Disposing of the petition filed by the victim families seeking the investigation by a Special Investigation Team of the CBI, the Court of Muzaffar Hussain Attar had directed CBI to take over the case for investigation.
“It is provided that CBI will take the matter for investigation and conduct the probe in accordance with law and ensure that justice is meted out to the petitioners,” the court had said.
In September 2015, three years after taking over the investigations, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has pleaded that Sailan massacre case should be closed.
“The order of 25 August 2017 has been challenged as the CBI court ignored material evidence and its decision is arbitrary and findings perverse. The order has resulted in a serious miscarriage of justice,” Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) said in a statement.
“The CBI court accepted the conclusions of the CBI and failed to appreciate the detailed submissions made by the family members of the victims that clearly indict the State forces for the crime and emphasize the need for further investigations that would lead to a charge sheet and a successful prosecution.”
JKCCS further said, “Three eye-witnesses, all family members of the victims, accuse the 4 SPO’s, and Major Gaurav Rishi, for their involvement in the massacre. Further, the CBI court was made aware of 12 witnesses who have vital evidence that support the case but the CBI court in its order does not even refer to this point.”
“Since 1998, the families of the victims have waged a struggle for justice before the State Human Rights Commission, J&K High Court, CBI court and now back before the high court,” it added.
This story was first published on TwoCircles.