Chattisinghpora massacre case: Witnesses turn hostile

Three witnesses, including a victim who suffered bullet injuries during the Chattisinghpora massacre in Jammu and Kashmir, have turned hostile in a Delhi court and refused to identify the accused persons who gunned down 35 Sikhs in the incident nine years ago.

Nanak Singh, 52, who had lost his son Gurmeet Singh and brother Dilbari Singh in the killings on March 20, 2000 at Anantnag district of the state, said that he could not see the assailants as he was unconscious.

"I can't identify accused persons. I was one of the injured and after the incident I became unconscious and did not see the assailants. My son and brother were killed... they were made to stand in a line," he deposed in a sessions court here.

Nanak, an Anantnag resident, testified that he had remained in a hospital and was discharged after eight months.

In the cross-examination by special public prosecutor BB Sharma, Nanak said he cannot say whether the accused persons, present in the court, were among the assailants.

Karam Jeet Singh, 50, another Sikh from Chattisinghpora village, failed to identify the accused in the court, saying he did not know the persons who opened fire on the villagers and neither did he know the place they belonged to.

Two suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba militants Mohd Suhail and Waseem Ahmed, who hailed from Sialkot and Gujranwala in Pakistan respectively, are facing trial in the case relating to the massacre in which a total of 35 Sikhs were killed by the militants wearing army uniform.

The case relating to the massacre was transferred here by the supreme court in November, 2008.  Karam Jeet was one of the  Sikhs who was made to stand in a line in front of a Gurudwara in the village by the assailants who collected all the male members on the pretext of launching a manhunt for militants and opened indiscriminate fire on them.

He escaped the bullets because, Karam Jeet said, he went to fetch milk for his child, who was ill at that time.

Another Sikh resident of the Chattisinghpora village Gurmukh Singh, who was also one of the witnesses of the prosecution, refused to identify the accused saying he could not see them.

He, however, added that a total of 15 to 20 militants had come in Army uniform in the village and killed people after forcing them to stand in a line near the Gurudwara.

A total of 11 prosecution witnesses have been examined so far in the trial which had been transferred from a Kathua court to the Delhi court.