Sikh Sangat News Celebrating Sikh culture and sharing Sikh voices
On the evening of 20 March 2000, 15–17 unidentified gunmen, dressed in Indian army fatigues, entered the village of Chattisinghpora, located in Anantnag district. They ordered all of the Sikh men and boys to assemble at the village Gurdwara, and systematically shot and killed 34 of them. Many others were injured in the attack, and least one man later died of his injuries. The sole survivor of the massacre was Nanak Singh Aulakh, who recounted the events to reporters. A unit of Indian paramilitary Rashtriya Rifles stationed nearby failed to intervene during the attack. The attackers wore military uniforms, and were led by a man they addressed as ‘Commanding Officer.’
This was the first time in the Kashmir conflict that Sikhs had ever been targeted. In the aftermath of the attacks, Indian Home Minister LK Advani offered the state’s Sikh population additional protective measures, however the local Sikh leadership reportedly rejected the plan, saying that the Muslim majority had not been hostile to them before and that no protection was needed.
The massacre, which took place on the eve of U.S. President Bill Clinton’s visit to the Subcontinent, was widely condemned by both the Indian and Pakistani Governments, as well as the leaders of the Kashmiri separatist movement.
Although the Government of India and the state government of Jammu and Kashmir had not yet launched any official investigation into the massacre, they immediately accused two Islamist terrorist organisations, Lashkar e Tayyiba and Hizbul Mujahideen. The All Parties Hurriyat Conference however, accused the Indian government of carrying out the massacre to discredit the Kashmiri independence movement, while Syed Salahuddin, head of Hizbul Mujahideen said: “Mujahideen have nothing against the Sikh community which sympathizes with our struggle. We assure them that there never was and there will never be any danger to Sikhs from Kashmiri freedom fighters.”
Ask yourself this question, if Indian Army was behind this ‘conspiracy’ as some seem to imply, then would they be so stupid to come in their own uniforms & in front of witnesses assemble the Sikh men to be shot, and as they went they would shout a few hindu slogans…just to let the village women know that they aren’t muslims but indian soldiers…really!!! are people so fickle to believe this…..now think for one moment if jihadi terrorists wanted to cause rift between Hindus & Sikhs whilst maligning the Indian army on the eve of President Clintons visit…what would they do?…they would first dress up as Indian soldiers, secondly they would chant hindu slogans to impregnate the minds of villagers that the evil deed had been done by Indian soldiers.
Also, do conspiracy theorists even for one moment stop and think that Indian Army would risk doing such an atrocity on the eve of President Clintons visit..knowing fully well that they have been seen IN THEIR OWN UNIFORM, and made it clear they were hindus by chanting hindu slogans….
There is no doubt that wrong people(innocent civilians) were killed in false encounter in an effort to find those accountable under pressure from above….those rogue servicemen should have been held responsible and jailed…that has been a failure on part of Authorities….The Supreme court should intervene…..and re-open the case and a full probe should be carried out independently.
The families of those killed are owed this much at least.