| Chittisinghpura massacre | |
|---|---|
| Location | Chittisinghpura,Anantnag district,Jammu and Kashmir,India |
| Date | 20 March 2000 |
| Target | Sikhs |
Attack type | Mass murder |
| Deaths | 35 |
TheChittisinghpura massacre refers to themass murder of 35Sikh villagers on 20 March 2000 in the village of Chittisinghpura (also spelled Chittisinghpora) inAnantnag district,Jammu and Kashmir,India on the eve of the American presidentBill Clinton's state visit to India.[1][2][3]
The Indian government asserts that the massacre was conducted by the Pakistan-basedmilitant groupLashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) orHizbul Mujahideen.[4] Though the perpetrators have not been apprehended or convicted and their identity remains debated.[5][6][7][8]
| Human rights abuses in Jammu and Kashmir |
|---|
| Notes |
| 1990 |
| 1991 |
| 1993 |
| 1995 |
| 1995 kidnapping of Western tourists in Kashmir |
| 1996 |
| 1997 |
| 1998 |
| 2000 |
| 2001 |
| 2002 |
| 2003 |
| 2004 |
| 2006 |
| 2009 |
Wearing Indian Armyfatigues, the unknown gunmen arrived into the village in military vehicles in two groups at opposite ends of the village where the twogurdwaras were located. The militants marched from home to home, introducing themselves as Indian Army personnel and ordered every male member of the household come out for security checks.[9] They ordered them to line up in front of the gurdwaras and opened fire, killing thirty-five Sikhs and shouted pro-India slogans after the massacre.[10][11]
The massacre was a turning point in theKashmir issue, where Sikhs had usually been spared from militant violence.[12]
Shortly after the massacre, hundreds of Kashmiri Sikhs gathered inJammu, shouting anti Pakistan and anti Muslim slogans, criticising the Indian government for failing to protect the villagers, and demanding retaliation.[13][14]
Following the killing,Syeed Salahudeen, Pakistan-based leader of the largest Kashmiri militant groupHizbul-Mujahideen, denounced the massacre, accusing India of it, and assured the Kashmiri Sikh community of the militants' support.[5]
In 2000, Indian authorities announced that Mohammad Suhail Malik, a nephew of Lashkar-e-Taiba co-founderHafiz Muhammad Saeed, confessed while in Indian custody to participating in the attacks at the direction of Lashkar-e-Taiba. He repeated the claim in an interview withBarry Bearak ofThe New York Times while still in Indian custody.[15] Villagers also told Bearak that militants had visited the place weeks prior and had mingled with them, which they now saw as reconnaissance for the massacre. Widows also claimed to recognized the voices of the attackers.[15] According to Indian journalistPraveen Swami, "Few people in the village believe stories claiming that the assailants were Indian Army soldiers."[16]
In 2005, Sikh organizations headed by the Bhai Kanahiya Jee Nishkam Seva Society demanded a deeper state inquiry into the details of the massacre[17] and for the inquiry to be made public. The state government ordered an inquiry into the massacre.
In an introduction to a book written byMadeleine Albright titledThe Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs (2006),Bill Clinton accused "Hindu militants" of perpetrating the act.[18] Clinton's office did not return calls seeking comment or clarification. The publishers,HarperCollins, later acknowledged "a failure in the fact-checking process" but did not offer a retraction.[18]
In 2010, the Lashkar-e-Taiba associateDavid Headley, who was arrested in connection with the2008 Mumbai attacks, reportedly told theNational Investigation Agency that the LeT carried out the Chittisinghpura massacre.[19] He is said to have identified an LeT militant named Muzzamil as part of the group which carried out the killings apparently to create communal tension just before Clinton's visit.[20]
In 2011, a Delhi court cleared Malik of the charges citing insufficient evidence.[21]
On March 21, 2000, in the war-torn state of Kashmir in India, Islamic militants massacred thirty-five Sikh men from the village of Chitti Singhpora. It was Holi, the festival of colors. Militants with bright Holi colors on their faces wore Indian military uniforms, arrived in the village, told the villagers they were from the army, and dragged the Sikh men out of their houses on the pretext of an "identification parade." All the Sikh men, young and old, were lined up against two walls in the village, and then shot to death. Since the targeting and subsequent exodus of Hindu Kashmiri Pandits from Kashmir, this was the first time the Sikh community was targeted and brutally massacre.
The conversation was mostly in Urdu, once again a language I did not speak. I could study his eyes but not his phrasing or inflections, the little clues as to what was being held back in the privacy of his head. When we left, I asked Surinder Oberoi, my journalist friend, if he thought Malik was telling the truth.
'Yes, I think so,' he answered after a pause. Then he added a cautionary shrug and a sentence that stopped after the words 'But you know. ... '
Malik showed no signs of physical abuse, but, as with Wagay, the torture of someone in his situation would not be unusual. Once, over a casual lunch, an Indian intelligence official told me that Malik had been 'intensively interrogated.' I asked him what that usually meant. 'You start with beatings, and from there it can go almost anywhere,' he said. Certainly, I knew what most Pakistanis would say of the confession -- that the teenager would admit to anything after persistent electrical prodding by the Indians. And it left me to surmise that if his interrogators had made productive use of pain, was it to get him to reveal the truth or to repeat their lies?
33°43′48.12″N75°14′41.06″E / 33.7300333°N 75.2447389°E /33.7300333; 75.2447389
