Pathribal: J-K to take action against guilty

A CBI inquiry is already on into the incident. This was announced by Muzzaffar Hussain Beigh, Law and Finance Minister and a member of the Cabinet sub-committee.

The government will also initiate disciplinary action against the then district magistrate, Anantnag, for not cooperating with the commission even as the Army which had led the operation has refused to turn up before the commission, Beigh said. ‘‘We will take up the issue with the Centre so that the armymen involved in the fake encounter are punished.’’

‘‘The commission has held SSP Farooq Khan and an SHO and some others responsible,’’ Beigh told The Indian Express. ‘‘The report reveals that then deputy commissioner, Anantnag, Samyal, did not cooperate with the commission. The medical team which took the samples of the killed persons for DNA had also used police technicians and fudged the samples,’’ he said.

The five persons were killed by the Army and the police in a fake encounter at Pathribal in Anantnag and later branded as foreign militants responsible for the masscare of Sikhs at Chittisingpora. The relatives of the killed persons and villagers contended the Army claim and demanded exhumation of the bodies.

The bodies, however, were exhumed only after eight persons were killed and over one dozen injured in police firing on a demonstration protesting against the killing of the five.

A commission, headed by Justice Pandian, held the police and CRPF responsible for unprovoked firing on the demonstration and recommended a probe into the Sikh massacre and Pathribal encounter. The Kuchai commission has held the medical team of the Government Medical College, Srinagar, responsible for fudging the blood samples in connivance with police.

Meanwhile, the CM today placed an inspector, Gazanfar Ali, under suspension. Ali allegedly kept a mason in illegal detention and tortured him to death two months back.