Sep
23
SSP involved in Pathribal massacre is reinstated
September 23, 2005 | 2 Comments
After being exonerated by the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation), Senior Superintendent of Police Farooq Khan was reinstated on September 14. He had been suspended in 2003 on charges of five fake killings in Pathribal in 2000.
The Pathribal killings were the joint response of the Indian Army and the police to the Chittisinghpora massacre. The Chittisinghpora massacre occurred in March 2000 when thirty-five Sikhs were killed in a village in Kashmir by men dressed in Indian Army uniforms. The Indian Army asserted that the killers must have been separatist militants
dressed in Army uniforms. A few days later, the Army announced that it
had found the militants responsible for the Chittisinghpora, and
claimed that five burnt and mutilated bodies in Pathribal were those of
the militants.
This
sparked a demonstration in April by Kashmiri villagers who claimed that
the Army was trying to pass off the bodies of innocent Kashmiri
civilians as those of militants. Central Reserve Police Force and
Kashmiri police fired on the protestors, killing eight civilians.
Although the police officers were suspended and a judicial probe found
the CRPF guilty of “excessive firing,” no action was taken against CRPF
personnel.
The bodies of the Pathribal victims were eventually exhumed and DNA samples
were taken. In 2002, it was reported that the DNA samples were “fudged”
in an attempt to cover up for the police officers. Later DNA tests
proved that the five killed were innocent Kashmiri civilians.
The
Indian government set up a commission to investigate the matter in July
2003 and a CBI probe was also conducted. The commission found two
doctors and three police officers, including SSP Farooq Khan,
responsible for tampering with the DNA samples and recommended “severe
punishment” for them. The CBI, however, exonerated SSP Khan, which
resulted in his present reinstatement.
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