Lest We Forget

The Jammu and Kashmir High Court has breathed a fresh life into the 1998 Massacre after it directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to reinvestigate the case. The massacre in Surankote, Poonch happened on the intervening night August 3 – 4 in 1998 when 19 members of three related families, including 13 women (one of whom was pregnant) were shot and axed to death in a span of seven to eight minutes.

The J&K police had then blamed ‘foreign militants’ for the massacre but an inquiry conducted by the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) in October 1998 ruled out the involvement of militants and implicated the Army and the state police in their report.

The SHRC investigation mentioned in its 17-page report that despite giving oral statements, written hand notices were put in the village, police station and district office, asking the local Army unit to be present for information collection, the Army did not participate. The SHRC team was informed through Superintendent of Police (SP), Surankot that ‘Army will not participate but wants independent inquiry to be conducted once the commission returns back’.

In its report, the then SHRC Chairman, Justice GA Kuchhai, had reported that the 19 innocent persons were killed in a barbarous manner in association with special police officer (SPO) Zakir Hussain’s death, who was killed by some unidentified militants on the same day.

The Sailan villagers had claimed that Sevak Singh, the then SP, Surankote (himself jailed on charges of involvement in killing of his young subordinate sub-inspector, Ajay Gupta, who had criticized Singh in front of many people that he was victimizing and killing innocent people), told the local Army unit that Imtiyaz, a militant and a relative of the slain villagers, was behind the killing of Zakir. more